History of development of hydropower in India

From an installation of a tiny 200 KW hydro unit in tea estates of Darjeeling in 1897 to commissioning of units of 105 MW in Bansagar tons in Madhya Pradesh in March 1991 spans nearly hundred years saga of development of Hydro Power in India. The rate of growth which was modest prior to independence, accelerated during post-independence period especially when planned growth of economy was envisaged under successive five year plans realising that availability of power was the key input for economic development leading to better standard of living for millions of people. As on today, the country boasts of every conceivable type of hydro generation including run of the river schemes, storage schemes, pumped storage plants besides Hydro generation due to transbasin diversion of water either by gravity of pumping with units capacity ranging from 6 MW to 165 MW each.