New Tehri is a planned town and the administrative headquarters of Tehri Garhwal district in the Garhwal division of Uttarakhand, India. The town was developed in the late twentieth century to rehabilitate residents of the historic town of Tehri, which was submerged by the reservoir of the Tehri Dam on the Bhagirathi River.
| Country | India |
|---|---|
| State | Uttarakhand |
| Division | Garhwal |
| District | Tehri Garhwal |
| Type | Planned town; district headquarters |
| Region | Garhwal Himalaya |
| Associated project | Tehri Dam / Tehri reservoir |
New Tehri sits on a ridge above the Tehri reservoir in the lower Himalayan ranges. Unlike the older town it replaced, which had grown organically at the confluence of the Bhagirathi and Bhilangana rivers, New Tehri was laid out as a planned settlement in stepped sectors along the hillside. It serves as the seat of district administration for Tehri Garhwal and houses district offices, courts, schools and residential colonies built for families displaced by the dam project.
The original town of Tehri was the historical capital of the princely state of Tehri Garhwal, founded in the early nineteenth century. With the construction of the Tehri Dam — one of the tallest dams in India, built by the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation (THDC) — the old town and several surrounding villages were submerged when the reservoir began to fill in the early 2000s. The displacement of inhabitants prompted a long-running rehabilitation programme, of which New Tehri was the principal urban component.
The town is situated in the Garhwal Himalaya at a higher elevation than the old town site, overlooking the artificial lake formed behind the Tehri Dam. The settlement is organised into numbered sectors, each containing residential blocks, markets and civic facilities. Connecting roads link New Tehri to Rishikesh, Dehradun and other towns of the Garhwal region.
New Tehri functions as the district headquarters of Tehri Garhwal. Offices of the District Magistrate, district courts, the police superintendent and various line departments of the Government of Uttarakhand are located in the town. Civic services are provided through a municipal body constituted under Uttarakhand's urban local government framework.
The local economy is shaped by government employment, education, trade serving the surrounding rural hinterland, and tourism associated with the Tehri reservoir. The lake has been promoted for water-based recreation and adventure activities, and the surrounding hills attract visitors travelling through the Garhwal circuit. The Tehri Dam itself is a major engineering landmark and a draw for visitors to the area.
New Tehri is notable as one of India's larger examples of a planned town created specifically for the resettlement of a population displaced by a major hydroelectric project. It also represents a continuity of administrative identity for Tehri Garhwal after the loss of the historic town to the reservoir.