Indira Gandhi Canal
| Indira Gandhi canal | |
| Canal | |
| Country | India |
|---|---|
| Source | Harike barrage |
| - location | Punjab and Rajasthan |
| Discharge | |
| - average | 138 m3/s (4,873 cu ft/s) |
The Indira Gandhi Canal is one of the largest canal projects in India. It starts from the Harike Barrage at Harike, a few kilometers below the confluence of the Satluj and Beas rivers in the Indian state of Punjab and terminates in irrigation facilities in the Thar Desert in the north west of Rajasthan state. Previously known as the Rajasthan Canal, it was renamed the Indira Gandhi Canal in 1985 following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The canal consists of the Rajasthan feeder canal with the first 167 kilometres (104 mi) in Punjab and Haryana state and a further 37 kilometres (23 mi) in Rajasthan followed by the 445 kilometres (277 mi) of the Rajasthan main canal, which is entirely within Rajasthan. The canal enters Haryana from Punjab near Lohgarh village then runs through the western part of the Sirsa district before entering Rajasthan near Kharakhera village in the Tibbi tehsil of the Hanumangarh district. The canal traverses seven districts of Rajasthan: Barmer, Bikaner, Churu, Hanumangarh, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, and Sriganganagar.
The idea of bringing the waters from the Himalayan Rivers flowing through Punjab and into Pakistan was conceived by an hydraulic engineer, Kanwar Sain in the late 1940s who proposed that 2,000,000 ha (20,000 km2) of desert land in Bikaner and the northwest corner of Jaisalmer could be brought under irrigation from the stored waters of Punjab rivers. In 1960, Indus Water Treaty was signed between India and Pakistan which gave India the right to use waters of three rivers – Satluj, Beas and Ravi. The proposed Rajasthan Canal envisaged use of 7.6 million acre feet of water.
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