Welcome to the dam site of Bajoli Holi Hydro Electric Project.

The dam is situated across the Ravi river

near the village Bajoli. Here, we can see the terrain and location of the dam. Let us take you to the process
of constructing the dam. Before the construction begins, the river flow needs to be diverted to make
excavation and construction activities possible at the dam location. This is done by diverting the river
water through a diversion tunnel that bypasses the dam location. Excavation inside the diversion tunnel
is gutted out by drill blasting using a two-boom hydraulic drill. The excavated material is stored near either
end of the tunnel. The diversion tunnel is excavated from both the upstream as well as the downstream
ends gradually progressing towards each other. Simultaneous to river diversion, excavation for dam
abutment both in soil and rock is taken up. Excavation is gutted out with a small excavator and one-boom
hydraulic drill. The abutment slopes are excavated in stages until the river water level is reached. The
excavated material is stored on either bank for further use in cofferdam construction. The excavated
slopes are stabilized by installing rock anchors and spraying shotcrete. Upstream and downstream closure
dykes are constructed using the excavated material by the end-on method. Dykes divert the river flow
through the diversion tunnel at upstream and prevented downstream water going back to the dam site.
Upstream and downstream cofferdams are then constructed using the material excavated from the
abutment slopes and the diversion tunnels. Water between the cofferdams is pumped out to expose the
riverbed. Further, excavation is now gutted out up to the dam foundation level. Simultaneously, tower
cranes, batching plant, wet belts and other construction facilities are erected at appropriate locations. Let
us now understand in detail the trajectory of material movement involved in the process of building the
dam structure. Dumper trucks travel by an approach road to the aggregate silos and dump the crushed
aggregates into respective silos. A conveyor carries aggregates from the silos one size of aggregates at a
time to the rotary feeder. The rotary feeder mechanism directs the aggregates flow to the respective
conveyors and subsequently to the hoppers in the wet belt system. Hereon, all the facilities are covered
and insulated to avoid heat loss. The conveyors carrying aggregates of size 10mm and sand pass through
a chilled air blast while larger aggregates pass through wet belts chilled water spray with temperature of
2 degree centigrade. To allow the extended time of travel for the aggregates in the wet belts, the
conveyors move at a much slower speed. The temperature inside the wet belts is maintained at 4 degree
centigrade. Water from the cooled aggregates is removed by passing it to the de-watering rotating screen
at the other end of the wet belt. Aggregates thus cold, are then carried by a closed conveyor and stored
in pre-cooled storage bins. A strike plate mechanism installed over the conveyor directs the aggregates to
fall in appropriate storage bins. Aggregates from pre-cooled storage bins are now gathered by a closed
conveyor to the batching plant way mechanism and further for mixing. At the batching plant, aggregates
are mixed with cement coming from the cement silos and chilled water in the required proportions to
make a concrete mix of the desired consistency. The concrete thus made is transferred into the concrete
bucket placed on a truck that carries it to the dam location. The crane keeps down at empty bucket, picks
up the loaded one, and delivers the concrete to the desired location of the concrete fill that is demarcated
by steel shuttering. A concrete vibrator is used to ensure that the pour is even and free of air bubbles.
Concrete is placed in layers of about 300mm thickness along the block width in a 3m layer at a time so
that cold joints during placement are avoided. With slabs spanning the width of the dam, the entire
structure is eventually built. Temporary structures like dykes and cofferdams at upstream gets submerged
underwater while the downstream structures are removed after completion of the structure. What we
see now is the completed dam.