All 28 Rivers & Drainage questions the Punjab PSC asked between 2015 and 2025, each with a worked answer and the exam it came from. First 10 free to read.
3 of these 28 were set in more than one exam — the Commission reuses this topic, which is the argument for working through it rather than skimming it.
Free to read, with the worked answer and the exam each one came from. The book prints this topic in the order the Commission favours, so these are the ones to know first.
Nagarjuna Sagar is on the Krishna (Telangana–Andhra Pradesh), Mettur on the Kaveri (Tamil Nadu), Hirakud on the Mahanadi (Odisha) and Indira Sagar on the Narmada (Madhya Pradesh). > A-3, B-1, C-4, D-2
Kolkata lies on the Hooghly, a distributary of the Ganga. Hyderabad is built on the Musi, a tributary of the Krishna. Nasik lies on the Godavari, near its source at Trimbak. Dibrugarh in Assam is on the Brahmaputra.
| City | River |
|---|---|
| Kolkata | Hooghly (D) |
| Hyderabad | Musi (A) |
| Nasik | Godavari (B) |
| Dibrugarh | Brahmaputra (C) |
So 1-D, 2-A, 3-B, 4-C.
The Salal hydroelectric project (690 MW) is built on the Chenab river at Reasi in Jammu & Kashmir. It was the first major Indian project on the Chenab under the Indus Waters Treaty. Baglihar and Dulhasti are other Chenab projects. Uri is on the Jhelum, Pong on the Beas and Bhakra on the Satluj.
Hirakud Dam is built across the Mahanadi, near Sambalpur in Odisha. It was completed in 1957. It is one of the world's longest earthen dams, about 25.8 km including dykes. It was among independent India's first big multipurpose river-valley projects.
The Shivanasamudra (Sivasamudram) Falls lie on the river Kaveri in Mandya district of Karnataka, where the river splits around the island of Shivanasamudra to form the twin falls Gaganachukki and Bharachukki. Asia's first hydroelectric power station was set up here in 1902.
Moving along the east coast from north-east to south-west, the Damodar reaches the Hooghly in West Bengal, then the Baitarni and the Mahanadi enter the sea in Odisha (the Baitarni mouth lies a little east of the Mahanadi mouth), and the Pennar flows into the sea in Andhra Pradesh far to the south-west. So the east-to-west order is Damodar, Baitarni, Mahanadi, Pennar.
Under the Indus Waters Treaty (signed at Karachi on 19 September 1960 with World Bank mediation) India got unrestricted use of the three eastern rivers – Ravi, Beas and Sutlej. The three western rivers – Indus, Jhelum and Chenab – went to Pakistan, with India allowed only limited non-consumptive, domestic and run-of-the-river uses. So the Chenab is not an eastern river.
Both statements are false. The Narmada and Tapi flow west through rift valleys and enter the Gulf of Khambhat through estuaries; they build no delta at all, so A is wrong. Their valleys are cut in hard Deccan basalt and their short tributaries yield little sediment – the very reason no delta forms – so R is wrong too.
Son, Kosi, Gomti, Ghaghara and Gandak are all direct tributaries of the Ganga. The Son joins from the south, the peninsular side. The Gomti, Ghaghara, Gandak and Kosi join from the north, the Himalayan side. The other options each contain rivers that are tributaries of the Yamuna — Betwa and Ken in (a) and (b), and Chambal in (d). So they are only indirectly part of the Ganga system.
The Musi flows through Hyderabad and joins the Krishna, not the Godavari. Manjra, Purna and Penganga are all tributaries of the Godavari.
You have read the ten the Commission asks most. The rest of this topic — and all 4,239 questions across the book, each with a worked solution — come with either edition.
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See the printed book →The Commission set 28 Rivers & Drainage questions across 31 papers between 2015–2025. That is the whole set, not a sample — every one of them is in the book, and the 10 most-asked are on this page free.
Yes. 3 of these 28 were set in more than one exam, which is why they are worth working rather than reading. Each question here carries a badge showing how many sittings asked it.
Here. Every question on this page is a solved MCQ: the four options as printed, the correct answer, and a worked explanation in plain English — not just a letter. The rest of the 28 are in the book, in the same form.
Switch to Attempt mode at the top of the questions. You get one question at a time and it is marked the moment you pick an option, with the reason underneath — the same way the exam feels, on your phone.
The questions are on screen rather than in a downloadable file, so they stay current and correct. The printed book has all 28 of these plus the rest of the General Knowledge section, and every buyer gets the whole thing online as well.
The exams behind these questions, most first. A paper here is a sitting: a question set in two papers of the same sitting counts once.
| Exam | Year | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System Officer (Group-B) | 2025 | 2 |
| Assistant Town Planner (Group A) | 2023 | 2 |
| Block Primary Education Officer | 2020 | 2 |
| Deputy Director | 2020 | 2 |
| Joint Director | 2020 | 2 |
| Principal | 2020 | 2 |
| Head Master Head Mistress | 2020 | 2 |
| Punjab Civil Services (Executive Branch) to Be Filled From Registe | 2017 | 2 |
| Punjab Civil Services(Executive Branch) of Register C From Amongst t | 2017 | 2 |
| Recruitment of Three Hundred Inspectors, Cooperative Societies | 2016 | 2 |
| Punjab Civil Services (Prelims) — General Studies | 2025 | 1 |
| Junior Scientific Officer (Group-B) | 2024 | 1 |