About
Mettur Dam (officially Stanley Dam) is one of India's oldest and largest concrete gravity dams still in continuous operation — a 65 m × 1.6 km dam on the Cauvery river at Mettur in Salem district, Tamil Nadu. Built by the British Madras Presidency between 1925 and 1934 under Sir Arthur Pope Cotton's irrigation engineering legacy, the dam was opened by then-Governor Sir George Stanley.
The dam impounds 2.65 cubic km of water and irrigates ~1.07 lakh hectares of farmland in the Cauvery delta — Tamil Nadu's primary rice-growing region. The associated Mettur Hydroelectric Power Station has 240 MW installed capacity (8 × 30 MW units), feeding the southern grid.
The dam's design loading was conservative by 1930s standards — using large factor of safety margins that have allowed the structure to survive 90+ years of continuous operation despite multiple major flood events including the 1965, 2018 (Cauvery floods), and 2024 (significant gate-opening events).
Mettur is a critical political fulcrum in the Cauvery water-sharing dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka — the dam's level is monitored daily by the Cauvery Water Management Authority + Supreme Court Special Master, and seasonal water releases are politically charged events.
Cross-references
8Indian Standards, IRC codes, and InfraLens knowledge articles that bear on this project's design and execution. Each link opens the relevant reference page.
Related calculators
3InfraLens calculators most relevant for dam projects.
Notable features
- 65 m concrete gravity dam on the Cauvery (1934)
- One of India's oldest large dams still in continuous operation (90+ years)
- Irrigates Tamil Nadu's primary rice-growing region (Cauvery delta)
- 240 MW associated hydroelectric capacity
- Critical political fulcrum in TN-KA Cauvery water dispute