Salma Dam Project

It is an under construction hydroelectric and irrigation dam project located on the Hari River of Herat Province in western Afghanistan relaunched in 2006 with financial support of India. The project is aimed at irrigating 75,000 hectares of land and generates 42 MW of power.

Salma dam was originally constructed in 1976 on the Hari river basin, but was damaged early during the Civil war in Afghanistan. The reconstruction of the dam was first initiated by an Indian company (WAPCOS Ltd.) in 1988, but the project was left incomplete for a significant period of time due to the ongoing instability caused by the civil war.

I In 2006, India the 5th largest donor to Afghanistan promised to rebuild the dam and complete it by 2010-2011.

Four Indian companies and 700 workers, including 250 Indians, are working on the project since then. It is one the two big projects India undertook in Afghanistan, the other being the Parliament building. The dam was to have been completed by 2010 but the timeline was pushed back by two years due to troubled security situation on site of the project.

The project was facing trouble in 2012 mainly due deteriorating security situation which might worsen after the bulk of the NATO forces withdraws from the war-ravaged country in 2014. There is also failure of consistent Indian support to project work as per reports to provide additional financing.