12^th Meeting of the National Committee on Dam Safety (NCDS) was held on July 17, 2026 under the Chairmanship of Chairman Central Water Commission, at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, Janpath, New Delhi. The meeting was attended by official members of ten central ministries/departments, seven States, two dam safety experts in addition to all Head of State Dam Safety Organisations and other special invitees.

In the inaugural remarks, the Chairman, NCDS highlighted the significant progress made in implementing the Dam Safety Act, 2021 through the notification of regulations, issuance of technical guidelines, and development of key dam safety documents, while stressing the need to expedite critical activities such as Emergency Action Plans, Comprehensive Dam Safety Evaluations, O&M Manuals, and Risk Assessment studies etc. The Chair also emphasised addressing emerging challenges related to reservoir sedimentation and dam surveillance and security, strengthening State Dam Safety Organisations, and ensuring timely implementation of the Act through constructive deliberations on the agenda items.

Detailed deliberations were held and Committee finally agreed to work on new regulation on surveillance and security of specified dams keeping in view emerging threats to this water infrastructure, amendment in regulation dealing with safety inspection check lists for specified dams, finalisation of chapter on dam safety to be include in the Guidelines for preparation of Detailed Project Report under the Section of the Act regarding construction or alteration of dams, accreditation of agencies dealing with investigations, design, construction and quality control, finalisation of framework for report preparation of dam failure and constitution of expert panels, preparation of technical guidelines on hazard classification of dams, risk assessment of dams, instrument of specified dams and its catchment, emergency action plan, operation and maintenance manuals including finalisation of reservoir rule curves, regular nomination of working engineers by dam owners for ongoing post graduate degree programs on dam safety by IIT Roorkee and IISc Bengaluru to ensure sustainability of this initiatives of Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India. It was also decided to explore engagement of regional institutions such as NIT Surat, NIT Calicut, NIT Nagpur and IIT Guwahati along with NIT Shillong  as a part of capacity strengthening of dam owners etc. the Committee also asked the dam owners to explore the independent collaborations with the technical and academic institutions especially for  customised training and dam safety support services. The Commiteee also deliberated whether there is any requirement to bring the new regulation to deal with this challenge of reservoir sedimentation.

 Detailed technical presentations were also made before the Committee on recent dam failures by concerned dam owners which include Luti Tank and Rajadera dam failures by Chhattisgarh Water Resources Department, Teesta Stage-III dam failure by Sikkim Urja Limited, Madhopur barrage failure by Punjab Water Resources Department, and ongoing reservoir dredging activities being undertaken at Bisalpur Dam by Rajasthan Water Grid Corporation.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Chairman requested all the States to expedite the mandatory compliances especially comprehensive dam safety evaluation, preparation of emergency action plan and risk assessment study of every specified dams within the stipulated statutory deadlines (i.e. upto  December 2026).

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ND/HM

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