IIT Roorkee, Central Water Commission to develop international centre of excellence for dams

NEW DELHI: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee and Central Water Commission will jointly set up the International Centre of Excellence for Dams (ICED) at the institute. The IIT Roorkee and CWC have signed an agreement to develop ICED which will focus on different safety and rehabilitation aspects of Dams, like Hydrological, Hydraulic, Structural, Geotechnical, seismic safety evaluation, and reservoir sedimentation and silt control, among others.

The ICED is being developed to create manpower having sufficient background and expertise in the area of Dam Safety. According to the official release, this center will be developed to deal with the complete life cycle of the dam in the longer run. The Ministry of Jal Shakti under DRIP phase 2 and phase 3 has provided a grant of Rs 108.99 crores to IIT Roorkee for establishing this center of excellence for dams.

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Professor KK Pant, Director, IIT Roorkee, said: "The formation of International Centre of Excellence for Dams (ICED) will empower 'Make in India' in dam safety, plus augment advanced research and developing technologies and application products. We are eager to contribute to the mission of the Ministry of Jal Shakti.” He reaffirmed the commitment of the institute towards water security and safety of dams.

Acknowledging the MoJS for entrusting the responsibility of establishing the ICED at IIT Roorkee, Professor N K Goel, Coordinator of Dam Safety and Rehabilitation at IIT Roorkee, assured the faculty colleagues and students that IIT Roorkee would continue to work towards dam safety and rehabilitation.

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Shri Pankaj Kumar, Secretary, DoWR, RD and GR, Ministry of Jal Shakti said: ‘’Government of India has taken a number of policy initiatives for improving the ecosystem for dam safety management in the country. Establishment of International Centre of Excellence for Dams at IIT Roorkee is one such important initiative in this direction."

The agreement was signed by Shri Vijay Saran, Chief Engineer, DSO and Project Director, DRIP Phase II and III and Professor Akshay Dvivedi, Dean of Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy on behalf of CWC and IIT Roorkee, respectively. During the event, Professor N K Goel, Coordinator of, Dam safety and rehabilitation program at IIT Roorkee, Professor M L Sharma, Theme coordinator, Professor Z Ahmad, Theme Coordinator, and Professor Brijesh Yadav, Head of the Department of Hydrology were also present. Professor KK Pant, Director of IIT Roorkee joined the event online.