Mettur Dam

The monumental task of building Tamil Nadu's Mettur Dam (or Stanley Dam)

The epic undertaking that was the Mettur Dam, on the river Kaveri in Tamil Nadu, took nine years to complete. This amateur-shot film gives us a rare glimpse of the work in progress, some three years before the dam opened. The backbreaking quarrying of stones - with little in the way of modern equipment to help the thousands of workers - calls to mind the building of the pyramids.

The Dam was later given the name the Stanley Dam in honour of the then-Governor of Madras, Sir George Frederick Stanley.