It was constructed across the Damodar River at Panchet in Dhanbad district in the Indian state of Jharkhand, and opened in 1959.

W.L.Voorduin, senior engineer of TVA prepared a preliminary report that outlined a plan designed to achieve flood control, irrigation, power generation and navigation.

J.D.Beglar who visited Telkupi in 1902 described it as 'containing, perhaps, the finest and largest number of temples within a small space that is to be found in the Chota Nagpur Circle in Bengal'.

[11] In 1959, Jawaharlal Nehru, then Prime Minister of India, was invited to inaugurate the newly constructed Panchet Dam.

The officials selected two project workers, fifteen-year-old Santhal girls Budhni Mejhan and Robon Majhi, to welcome the Prime Minister.

In 1985, then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi reinstated her at the DVC, but she and her daughter remain outcasts from their village.

Sediment trapping in reservoirs and the lack of flushing due to reduced peak discharge have inevitably transformed the lower Damodar basin into an ecologically imbalanced area.

[14] There are plans to generate a total of 155 MW electricity from solar energy at Panchet Dam.

[15] The Panchet reservoir is rather poor in terms of total dissolved salts as reflected by the specific conductivity values of 12.33 to 19 μmhos.

The occurrence of catla, rohu, mrigal and L. calbasu in the fishery, without stocking indicates that the carps now reproduce in the reservoir.