Mangla Dam Project was actually conceived in 1950’s as a multipurpose project to be constructed at a place called Mangla on river Jhelum located about 30 km upstream of Jhelum city (120 km from Capital Islamabad). The initial investigation and its feasibility studies were completed in 1958. Later on, the project was included in the Indus Basin Project. The construction of Mangla Dam was started in 1962 and completed in 1967. The main objectives were to regain the reservoir capacity lost due to sedimentation, to store more water for irrigation releases, to minimize the conservation of flood discharges and thereby enhancing Irrigation releases and to enhance the annual generation of electricity. The height of the dam was 30 feet raised from 1234 feet to 1264 feet with an additional storage capacity of 2.88 MAF and Additional Power 644 GWh per annum (12% of existing generation).
General Power Information:
| No. of Generating Units | 10 |
| Rated Capacity per Unit | 100 MW each |
| Total installed Capacity | 1120 MW |
| Generation Voltage | 13.2 KV |
| Rated Head | 295 Ft. |
| Rated Discharge( 10 Units) | 45000 Cfs |