in the 20th century, the river was developed under the beas project for irrigation and hydroelectric power generation purposes. the second-phase pong dam was completed in 1974 followed by the first-phase upstream, pandoh dam in 1977. the pong dam served initially to primarily provide irrigation below talwara but was soon developed as well for power generation; its power station has a 360 mw installed capacity. the pandoh dam diverts the river through a system of tunnels and channels to the 990 mw dehar power station on the sutlej river, connecting both rivers.