Kaptai Lake is the largest man-made lake in

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

. It is located in the

Kaptai Upazila Kaptai () is an upazila of Rangamati Hill District, Rangamati District in the Division of Chittagong Division, Chittagong, Bangladesh. The name of the Kaptai was derived from the Tripuri word "Kaptetoima". It is said that in the past, the river was ...

under

Rangamati District Rangamati District (), officially Rangamati Hill District, is a district in south-eastern Bangladesh. It is a part of the Chattogram Division, and the town of Rangamati serves as the headquarters of the district. By area, Rangamati is the larg ...

Chittagong Division Chittagong Division (), officially Chattogram Division, is geographically the largest of the eight administrative divisions of Bangladesh. It covers the southeasternmost areas of the country, with a total area of and a population according to th ...

. The lake was created as a result of building the

Kaptai Dam Kaptai Dam () is on the Karnaphuli River at Kaptai, upstream from Chittagong in Rangamati District, Bangladesh. It is an earth-fill embankment dam with a reservoir (known as Kaptai Lake) with water storage capacity of . The primary purpose ...

on the

Karnaphuli River The Karnaphuli River ( ''Kôrnophuli''; also spelt Karnafuli and Khawthlangtuipui in Mizo, meaning "western river" and Borgang in Chakma, meaning "Big River") is the largest and most important river in Chittagong and the Chittagong Hill Tract ...

, as part of the Karnafuli Hydropower Station. Kaptai Lake's average depth is and maximum depth is .

History

Construction of the reservoir for the hydro-electric plant began in 1956 by the Government of

East Pakistan East Pakistan was the eastern province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1971, restructured and renamed from the province of East Bengal and covering the territory of the modern country of Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Burma, wit ...

.Daily JaiJaiDin, January 10, 2008. Page 10. of farmland in the

was submerged with the creation of the lake. The project was finished in 1961. 40% of the total arable land went underwater as a result of the dam construction and 100,000 people were displaced. The palace of the king of the Chakmas was also flooded and is also underwater. The International Engineering Company and Utah International Inc. received the contract for the construction of the dam. The dam is 670.8 meters long, and 54.7 meters high. In early September 2024, amid continuous upstream water flow and heavy rainfall in Rangamati, the water level of Kaptai Lake reached the danger level, prompting the opening of 16 sluice gates. The sluice gates, opened to 3.5 feet to help reduce the lake's water level, resulted in the release of 68,000 cusecs of water per second into the Karnaphuli River. A day earlier, the sluices had been opened to 2.5 feet, but with the lake's water level still rising, the decision was made to increase the opening to 3.5 feet. The water level of Kaptai Lake at the time stood at 108.74 MSL (mean sea level), against the lake's maximum capacity of 109 MSL.

Gallery

File:Hanging Bridge, Kaptai Lake.jpg, Hanging Bridge File:Kaptai1.jpg, the lake File:Wooden boats, Kaptai Lake (01).jpg, Wooden boats File:Aronnak Holiday Cottage, Rangamati09.jpg, Boat on the lake File:View of Kaptai lake , Rangamati.jpg, View of Kaptai lake, Rangamati File:Kaptai Lake sluice gate.jpg, Kaptai Dam File:Kaptai-Cantonment.jpg, Kaptai File:Rangamati Jhorna.jpg, A Beautiful waterfall

References

External links

Kaptai Lake
at

Banglapedia ''Banglapedia:'' ''the'' ''National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh'' is the first Bangladeshi encyclopedia. It is available in print, CD-ROM format and online, in both Bengali and English. The print version comprises fourteen 500-page volumes. The ...

Kaptai Lake Rangamati
a
Travel Mate
Kaptai Upazila Reservoirs in Bangladesh Karnaphuli River Chittagong Division History of Chittagong Division Infrastructure completed in 1962 Tourist attractions in Chittagong Division 1962 establishments in East Pakistan {{Chittagong-geo-stub

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links