Aditya Kiran Nag Profile picture
Jun 9, 2022 26 tweets 12 min read Read on X
2 decades after the formation of Orissa we were world news for all the right reasons. Harnessing nature’s renewable hydro-energy firing up the boilers of industrial revolution in India & the sub-continent, also protect the vital farmlands of coastal Orissa from flooding. 1/N The Hirakud Dam inauguration footage reel 1957, British PathProposed network of irrigation from the Hirakud reservoir.
At 4.8 km it was the longest dam in the world, being built right here in Orissa. A behemoth of renewable energy which can stave off India’s ever growing needs till the dawn of nuclear power. 2/N
For a brief moment there was no dam in the world that could match the scale of the Hirakud dam, creating the then largest manmade lake in Asia. The current badge of honour belongs to this uber Russian reservoir called Bratsk on the Angara river. 3/N The Bratsk reservoir & Hydroelectric power station completed
In just 10 years Modern India gained massive knowledge in dam building creating its own cohort of engineers match that of any the West or the Soviet Union could field. With a leading member of NAM India was proving a point to the powers which won World War Two 4/N Over 25 million are left homeless & homes of 45 million were
One such engineer an Oriya -Shibasankar Behera visits the state of Montana in 1955 to learn from & compare dams of the USA. Modern India led by Nehru at just 8 years old along with this engineer, were taking part in her greatest construction feat. 5/N Prisma stylised image from Director Roberto Rossellini's fil
Building the #HirakudDam over the #Mahanadi taming this great river to unlock limitless electricity. Here’s Shibasankar Behera's story as told in this local newspaper in Montana called the Hungry Horse News back in 1955 two years prior to the inauguration of the Hirakud Dam. 6/N
"Our guest Tuesday afternoon on a drive up Glacier’s Going-to-the-Sun highway to the foot of the Garden Wall was Shibashankar Behera, engineer at the Hirakud Dam on the Mahanadi river in India’s state of Orissa. 7/N An old poster of the Going to the Sun Highway 1950sThe Garden Wall at Glacier park Montana, United States of Am
Behera, a fine man, is one of about 50 foreigners seeing American dams and irrigation projects under the International Cooperation Administration program He came here to see Hungry Horse Dam and Wednesday and Thursday will be at Tiber Dam near Chester. 8/N The International Cooperation Administration (ICA) was a UniTiber Dam, located in southern Liberty County in northern MoAir Camper at Tiber Dam more info look up the The Experiment
Hungry Horse, the US’s 3rd highest, 4th largest built of concrete, had a peak employment of about 2,550. Hirakud Dam in India will employ about 20,000. Incidentally it is considered the world’s longest dam, being three miles of earth 9/N Hungry Horse Dam is an arch dam in the western United States
& concrete up to 220 feet high with 13 miles of dykes. 10/N Angling camp & pack rafting image courtesy the Bob Marshall
As we drove Into Glacier we developed the thought that a main difference between the United States and India was the economic status of the individual man. 11/N Glacier National Park, Going to the Sun Highway
Strings of cars went by. License plates were: Washington, California, Iowa and New Jersey. A paunchy bear was holding up another string. There were South Dakota, New York, Montana, Wisconsin and Illinois. 12/N Glacier National Park visitors car parking near Mountain top
America comes to Glacier, and these Americans are carpenters, machine operators, mechanics, clerks and lawyers. 13/N Red Jammers are the vintage White Motor Company/Bender Body
In India where it requires 20,000 men compared to 2,000 here to build a dam, home for the machine operator and carpenter is apt to be a mud plastered cottage of two rooms, minus plumbing. 14/N
We take our automobiles, refrigerators, paid vacations and fact that our youngsters can go on to college if they desire, for granted. The struggle in India and in many other parts of the world is the problem of getting enough to eat. 15/N India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru meets Oriyas/OLevittown, Pennsylvania 1959
Here it is to meet payments on the new car, bought every two or three years. The United States has poverty, but it is the least of any land. 16/N American city 1950sBlack American family 1950sElvis Aaron Presley, American Singer dubbed the "King O
One could literally see Behera’s warm, dark eyes absorb the beauty of Glacier. He commented: “We have Kashmir, but it is inaccessible.” 17/N Srinagar City, Kashmir 1950sFrozen roads near Srinagar, Kashmir 1950s
The modern industrial age is just coming to India. Construction wage is under $1 a day. The $1 in terms of about five rupees is able to keep a roof over a family and buy simple food. 18/N Prisma stylised image of Oriya/Odia women at Hirakud Dam, Ma
In America men in comparative jobs have refrigerators, automobiles and paid vacations that often times bring them to such places as Glacier. We were seeing them Tuesday. 19/N The Many Glacier Hotel, Browning, Montana 1950s
Some of us talk about $2 an hour wages as too high, and others think in terms of “automaton” eliminating jobs and there’s also featherbedding to keep men on payrolls even though they don’t produce. 20/N “Hungry at drugstore after a day's work earning money for
We tend to overlook that if there weren’t $2 and $2.50 an hour wages on one hand and development of American technical knowhow—“automaton”—on the other, our people would be living more like they do in India. 21/N A baby blue 1955 Ford meets an untimely demise at the prow oAugust 15th, 1947 New Delhi, India
We were thinking in these terms. Mr. Behera was not. He referred to success of his country in bolstering agriculture production. A few years ago to prevent mass starvation there was importation of about 5,000,000 tons of food. 22/N Prisma stylised image of Hirakud sluice gates.Prisma stylised image of Man watching construction of the Hi
Now India apparently can feed itself. This is progress. The nation has about 150 dams and irrigation projects under construction and is building aluminium and steel plants. 23/N Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru visiting the University of CPrime Minister Nehru along with Burmese Prime Minister U Nu
The Beheras have four children, and they have milk. They lack a refrigerator but keep a cow. Mrs. Behera does not have the electrified home, & she has six servants to help with household chores. Behera sees the day that this will be three. 24/N
We remarked that in Columbia Falls we did not at this time know of a single housewife with a full-time employee assisting her. 25/N
Behera comes of an old civilization but a new country. His independence day is back in 1947. He appreciated that most of America could come to Glacier. In his own country, planning & effort is apparently licking starvation, & ahead is a long row. America has come a long way. 26/N Indira Gandhi overseeing the wheat harvest at Teen Murti Bha

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