With India and Nepal now agreeing to construct the long-pending Pancheshwar dam project at the confluence of the Mahakali and the Saryu rivers in Uttarakhand's Champawat district, a long –awaited plan to construct a dam on the Saryu river at  Chamgarh area that falls in the same Pancheshwar region takes a back seat.

The Government of India started thinking about  construction of the Chamgarh dam project long back when the two neighbours could not reach an agreement to move forward on the much-talked about  Pancheshwar dam project during the past so many years.

The Chamgarh project was mooted keeping in view India's growing energy needs and requirement   of water for both agriculture and drinking purposes in the region. Its electricity   generation capacity was estimated at about 400 MWs.

The proposed Chamgarh dam project on the Saryu river which flows completely in the Indian territory is about 11.5 km away towards north-west from the confluence of the Mahakali and Saryu and three km away downward from the Ghat motor bridge on the Tanakpur- Pithoragarh Road.

The Government of India took a decision to complete the survey of the proposed Chamgarh dam project in 1990 and the Central Electricity Authority then also announced a grant of Rs 100 lakh for the survey work, said the officials concerned of the state irrigation department (north).

Initially, a proposal with an estimated cost of Rs 568.00 crore for construction of the Chamgarh dam project was sent to the Government of India in 1977. Subsequently, after resurvey of the availability of water in the Saryu river and other construction and labour expenditures, a revised proposal of the said dam project with an estimated cost   wroth Rs 1251.21 crore was submitted to the Government of India in 1986.

 Subsequently, an amount of Rs 2.67 crore was also spent on the research work on the said Chamgarh dam project till 2005 and about 50 per cent of the research works were done on the proposed Chamgarh dam project.  However, on account of scarcity of the fund, rest of the research work could not be completed on the project, maintained the officials concerned.

Since the proposed Chamgarh dam site will also be part of the submerged area of the Pancheswar dam the proposal for constructing the said Chamgarh dam has, therefore, been put on the back burner now, added the officials concerned of the state irrigation department (north).