India - Second Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project : Additional Finance

Overview & Synopsis

The development objective of the Second Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project – Additional Financing for India is to increase the safety of selected dams in participating States and to strengthen dam safety management in India. The additional financing is proposed to scale up the national dam safety program to cover an additional 100 to 150 high risk large dams and to deepen institutional capacity, sustainable financing, and long-term asset management required to operationalize the Dam Safety Act 2021, including the design of a National Dam Safety Fund (NDSF). The World Bank will support structural rehabilitation and modernization of dams (such as seepage reduction, spillway strengthening, and electro-mechanical upgrades), complemented by non-structural measures including updated operation and maintenance manuals, basic instrumentation, flood forecasting and early warning systems, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), reservoir sediment management, and Emergency Action Plans (EAPs) prepared and tested with communities. Institutional strengthening will include establishing and reinforcing Dam Safety Organizations (DSOs) and Dam Safety Review Panels (DSRPs), integrating dam safety with disaster management plans at multiple administrative levels through incident response systems and drills, expanding capacity building and graduate programs, and enhancing research and knowledge partnerships via Centers of Excellence (CoEs). Risk-informed asset management will be advanced through the three-tier Risk Assessment and Classification Framework (RACF), comprehensive asset management plans, and a national dam asset management system, while improving the predictability and adequacy of operation and maintenance financing and developing alternative revenue streams such as tourism, fisheries, and floating solar, including exploration of public private partnership options where feasible. The project intends to reduce the likelihood and consequences of dam failures, enhance climate resilience of critical water infrastructure, and protect livelihoods by lowering flood and drought risks downstream; it will contribute to people with enhanced resilience to climate risks, targeted at 13.5 million beneficiaries, reduce crop losses and power disruptions, generate more and better-paid job equivalents, and strengthen the governance and regulatory systems mandated by the Dam Safety Act 2021.