The Beas river originates from the Beas Kund, which lies near the:

The Beas river rises at Beas Kund, a glacial lake at a height of about 4,000 metres in the Pir Panjal range, near the Rohtang Pass in the Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh.

Name:

The river is named after the sage Ved Vyasa. In the Vedic period, it was called the Arjikiya, and the ancient Greeks called it the Hyphasis.

Historical importance:

In 326 BCE, the army of Alexander the Great refused to advance beyond the Beas (Hyphasis), marking the eastern limit of his conquests in India.

Course of the Beas:

• It flows south through the Kullu Valley, past Manali and Kullu.
• It then turns west through the Mandi district and the Kangra Valley.
• It enters Punjab and joins the Sutlej there.
• Its total length is about 470 km.
• It is the only one of the five major Punjab rivers that flows entirely within India.

Dams and projects:

• Pong Dam (Maharajah Ranjit Sagar Dam) in Kangra district forms the Pong reservoir, a Ramsar wetland that attracts many migratory birds.
• The Pandoh Dam diverts Beas water through the Beas-Sutlej Link Project to the Sutlej, for irrigation and hydropower.

About the Rohtang Pass:

• It is a high mountain pass (about 3,980 metres) on the Pir Panjal range, connecting the Kullu Valley with the Lahaul and Spiti valleys.
• The name "Rohtang" is said to mean "pile of corpses" in the Tibetan or Bhoti language, because many travellers died while crossing it in bad weather.

The Atal Tunnel (about 9 km), opened in October 2020 under the Rohtang Pass, is one of the world's longest highway tunnels above 10,000 feet. It provides all-weather access to Lahaul-Spiti.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Zoji La connects Srinagar with Ladakh.
• ✗Nathu La is a pass on the Sikkim-Tibet border.
• ✗Banihal Pass connects Jammu with the Kashmir Valley; the Jawahar Tunnel and the newer Banihal railway tunnel pass under the Pir Panjal near it.