It was constructed across the Barakar River, at Tilaiya in Koderma district in the Indian state of Jharkhand and opened in 1953.

The committee recommended the formation of a body similar to the Tennessee Valley Authority of the United States.

The main aims of the corporation were flood control, irrigation, generation and transmission of electricity, and year-round navigation.

At the point where the dam has been built, the river passes through a narrow gorge, with hills rising steeply on both the sides.

Shortly after opening the Tilaiya dam, pictured on the one-anna stamp, Nehru commented in a letter to the chief ministers that "the sight of those works filled me, as it did others who were present, with a sense of great achievement.