The third 'National Dam Safety Conference' culminated today at Roorkee in Uttarakhand with the participation of over 400 delegates from across the country and abroad. They discussed ways to further strengthen the safety of dams during a two-day conference.<br/><br/>The third 'National Dam Safety Conference' focused on key challenges that are being encountered in the implementation of the Dam Safety Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP).<br/><br/>Dams have played a key role in fostering rapid and sustained agricultural and rural growth and development, which have been key priorities of the government of India since independence.<br/><br/>An official release said, the professionals from the USA, Australia, Japan, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, and Germany attended the event. Globally, India ranks third after China and the United States of America in terms of number of large dams with a total storage capacity of about 283 billion cubic meters.