Enter the tunnel
A run of the river project is of two types, one that requires a long tunnel and the other that requires a huge reservoir. The river is diverted through a tunnel and the water falls on a turbine from a height, generating electricity. In a reservoir-run of the river project, the tunnel is small as the volume of water is responsible for generating electricity. The water is released back into the river through another tunnel called the tailrace tunnel after producing electricity. So, the stretch of the river between the dam site and the outlet tunnel has lesser water than the river would have in unhindered conditions. The argument in favour of the run of the river dams is that unlike a storage dam that submerges a large area under a reservoir, most run of the river projects do not have large reservoirs and therefore less displacement. But the way dams have been planned on the Ganga, it does not leave much of the river flowing in its natural stretch.
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