Centre grants Rs 210 cr to plug breaches in Bist Doaba canal

According to records of the canal irrigation department,the Bist Doaba canal is entitled to 1,452 cusecs water,but most of the year it remains dry. This year,too,since January to mid-June,no water was released in the canal.

This is primarily because the department has recommended the release of 90 per cent of the water and not running the canal to its full capacity.

Executive engineer of the department Dalip Singh said,“The project was cleared by the Centre for brick lining of the embankments,but we are planning concrete lining. There won’t be much difference in terms of expenditure. We would start work as soon as we get the funds from the Centre.”

Singh said the canal bed would remain “kutcha”,which will help in water recharging while embankments would be “pucca” as it would prevent wild vegetation in the canals and supply water faster.

“Due to excessive wild vegetation on the kutcha embankments of canal,a lot of water gets wasted and in summers it gets dried up,” he said.

The concrete lining would plug all breaches and clear the encroachments in various tails of the canal,said sources.

The canal is considered the lifeline of the doaba region,which runs between the Nawanshahr,Hoshiarpur,Jalandhar and Kapurthala. But in most of the region,many of its dis tributaries are filled with earth. At several places,especially on the outskirts of the city,the distributary network has been eaten up by illegal encroachments and now these are also expected to be dug up again.

The Bist Doab canal,which was completed in 1954-55,takes off from the bank on the right side of the Satluj from the Rupnagar Headworks. But the area irrigated by different breaches since 1995-96 to till date,never touched the figure of even 10 per cent of the total irrigated area in the region.

Only recently,three distributaries in the area — Jandu Singha,Adampur and Gohir (about 50 km)—- were cleaned under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) last year.