A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF HARILAL SAHU, RAIPUR

1. EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION:

I was born on 25.01.1937 (Chher-Chhera Poornima-Night) in a small village ‘Goji’

situated in today’s Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh in a farmers family. The village Goji
was a typical Indian village having no basic facilities of school, no road, no electricity, and
no pure drinking water.
1. I took my primary education (class 1 to 4) in Govt. School situated at Sakri village,
about 2.5km away from home. There were no roads in those days. We used to go to
school by walking over the rice fields buried pathways.
2. I went to Nawapara Harihar School for middle school education (class 5 to 7).
3. I had my 8th to 11th class (matriculation) studies done from Mission Mannonitte School,
Dhamtari. I stood first in matric in 1953.
4. I passed my inter from science college Raipur in first grade.
5. Then I got admission to the Government Engineering College, Jabalpur and I completed
my graduation in BE Hons. (Civil Engineering) in 1959 .

2 PROFESSION:
After completing my graduation BE(Hons.) in Civil Engineering from Jabalpur I was
appointed as a junior engineer at Water Resource Department, Raipur, under Govt. of
Madhya Pradesh in August 1959. During my service also I had continue to take higher
education. I passed M.E.(Water Resource Development) from Roorkee University,(U.P) ;
post graduation in Hydrology from Budapest(Hungary), also Participate In International
Course On Advance Hydrology From Moscow State University, Moscow(USSR); also done
certificate course on sediment technology from Ankara(Turkey). After working for 36 years
in different locations, posts and capacities I got retired from govt. Service in 1995 as a
chief engineer. During academic and administrative services I had published 36 research
papers on different aspects of hydrology and water resources development. I also
published a book on Yoga in English “Yoga and healthy life”.

3 SPECIAL CONTRIBUTION DURING SERVICE FOR DEVELOPMENT OF

WATER RESOURCE IN RAIPUR REGION
Mahanadi River is the largest river having largest river basin and has a 75858.45 sq.km
upper riparian basin area lies in the Chhattisgarh. In absence of proper dam and large
reservoirs the Chhattisgarh state was unable to utilizes the full potential of Mahanadi and
usually faces problems of scarcity of urban, industrial and agricultural water supply and
draught prone area in Raipur and surrounding region. During my service period I had
prepared complete location survey, investigation and project report of many projects out
of them following are the two Big Reservoir Projects in Mahanadi River System
 A. GANGREL DAM RESERVOIR PROJECT (SATIYARA PROJECT) AT DHAMTARI.
B. SIKASAR DAM RESERVOIR PROJECT NEAR GARIABAND.
Both this projects are big reservoir projects in Mahanadi river system. Gangrel dam
reservoir project is biggest reservoir in the Mahanadi system and the longest dam in the
Chhattisgarh. These projects are blessings for urban and industrial water supply and
agricultural irrigation development in Chhattisgarh.

A. GANGREL DAM PROJECT

This project was originally Satiara Dam project and was much delayed and being
surveyed since about last 20 years because of following drawbacks.

1) Rock foundation was 70 feet deep below river bed.

2) Submergence of Charama town.
3) Sub mergence of part of NH-30.

After my posting as sub divisional officer at Satiara survey subdivision, we

resurveyed surrounding locations and selected new dam site further downstream from
Satiara dam site near Gangrel village. At this site we found the rock foundation 30 feet
below river bed. This site was very suitable for construction of dam and free from all the
past drawbacks and has a very good storage reservoir potential. The project was renamed
as Gangrel Dam (MRP-Mahanadi River Project). Project report was prepared in 2 years
and got sanction from Planning commission in 1971 and the construction of project
completed by 1978.

The whole complex has the following benefits -

1)3.10 lakh hectare of irrigation in North Bastar, Dhamtari, Raipur and Durg district .
2)500 Cusec of water supply to Bhilai Steel Plant for domestic and industrial use.
3)136 million cubic meter of drinking water supply for cities and towns of Chhattisgarh
region.
4) Filling of village tanks during summer season.
5) Ground water management in command area.
6) 10 mega watt of hydro power generation from the dam.
7) 200 kilo watt of hydropower generation in feeder canal.

B. SIKASAR DAM PROJECT (PAIRY PROJECT)

This is an irrigation project in Raipur district comprising of Sikasar dam having water
reservoir capacity 198.8 million cubic meters and 7 mw hydro power project. Across river
Pairy, tributary of Mahanadi near village Sikasar and a Pairy pick up weir about 40 km
downstream of the dam. This project is situated in very dense and reserve forest area.
Investigation survey is very difficult. Though the investigation survey and project report
was prepared within 1 year and submitted to government for sanction. This project is an
boon for the irrigation of many thousands hectare of the agriculture land in the nearby
Rajim, Gariaband , Mahasamund and Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh.

4. VIPASSANA MEDITATION:
Since the young age i was connected with Arya Samaj. In 1975 as a delegate from
Arya Samaj, i went to Mauritius to attend international convention for 10 days. during the
journey of life, I came in contact with Maharshi Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental
Meditation; Bramhakumaries; Shri Satya Sai Baba; but my spiritual thirst ends after doing
my first Vipassana Meditation course in August 1993 in gypsy camp at nuns hostel church,
Bhopal.
After doing my first Vipassana course in 1993, I observed that Vipassana is the
most pure, authentic, practical and fruitful form of spiritual science. Vipassana is an art of
living to eradicate all defilements of life to live a happy and peaceful life. As I experienced
that Vipassana is best amongst all forms of meditation, so I continued its practice
I was appointed Assistant Teacher (Sahayak Acharya) in March 1999 by my Guruji
Vipashyanacharya Shri Satyanarayan Goenka ji. Since then I am travelling in all parts of
India and abroad for spreading Dhamma. From my own savings I sponsored purchase of
the land and whole construction works of new Vipassana meditation center (of 100
students capacity) and Pagaoda(of 40 cells capacity) at khariar road, Orissa. At present I
am serving as center teacher (kendriya Acharya) in Dhamma Utkal Vipassana Meditation
Center, Khariar Road,Orissa.