Tarbela Dam

Tarbela Dam is an earth-filled dam along the Indus River in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Located in the Swabi and Haripur Districts of the province, the dam is about 30 km from the city of Swabi, 105 km northwest of Islamabad, and 125 km east of Peshawar. It is the largest earth-filled dam in the world, and also the largest dam by structural volume.The dam was completed in 1976 and was designed to store water from the Indus River for irrigation, flood control, and the generation of hydroelectric power. The dam is 143 metres high above the riverbed. The dam’s reservoir, Tarbela Lake, has a surface area of approximately 250 square kilometres.

Tarbela Dam’s primary use is electricity generation. The installed capacity of the 4,888 MW Tarbela hydroelectric power stations will increase to 6,298 MW after completion of the planned fifth extension financed by Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the World Bank.