China Plans Dam Near India That Could Be World’s Biggest
Live Mint-- Follow Bloomberg India on WhatsApp for exclusive content and analysis on what billionaires, businesses and markets are doing. China is pressing ahead with plans to construct a mega-dam near its contested border with India, a colossal undertaking that could generate three times as much power as the Three Gorges Dam. The dam could become a source of tension between China and India, as the Yarlung Tsangpo runs through the contested Arunachal Pradesh area and feeds into one of India’s major rivers. China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement to Bloomberg News that Beijing had “spent decades studying the development of hydropower project in the lower reaches of Yarlung Tsangpo river,” and pledged to put in place measures to ensure safety and environmental protection. In 2020, a state media report cited the head of government-owned Power Construction Corporation of China saying the lower reaches of the river featured a huge gorge with potential for 70 gigawatt electricity generation capacity — more than triple that of Three Gorges Dam, which is the world’s largest.