Nod to desilting, repair of Harike barrage gates
Raj Sadosh
Abohar, February 10
Harike headworks will be closed in the last week of March for repairing its gates and desilting.
For this, the Rajasthan Government has approved Rs 39 crore, said Sriganganagar MP Nihal Chand today. Punjab has already released its share of Rs 17 crore for the work. Rajasthan has transferred Rs 29 crore to Punjab; the remaining amount will be paid after the work is completed in April.
The canal water users’ committees and Water Resources Department officials of the two states have given nod to the plan in a joint meeting at Sriganganagar. Once the work is completed, flow (“wastage”) of water to the West Punjab province of Pakistan will be prevented.
Punjab and Rajasthan engineers will monitor the work and pictures will be taken after it is completed. “Water has been flowing to Pakistan because of leakage in gates. This affects farmers in Rajasthan,” the MP said.
Harike headworks situated at the confluence of the Sutlej and Beas rivers attains importance as the inter-state regulation of irrigation and flood control is carried out from this barrage.
There are three canals at Harike — Rajasthan Feeder, Ferozepur Feeder and Makhu Canal. Rajasthan and Ferozepur Feeders provide water to Rajasthan along with part of Punjab. Silt and hyacinth reduced the storage of Harike reservoir from 67,900 acre feet to 9,300 acre feet.
Experts said that with the passage of time, some of the gates went out of order, while others stopped working properly. This resulted in substantial amount of water going waste. The wastage of water was assessed at 1,000 cusecs during an inspection by engineers of the two states.
Kahan Singh Pannu, Principal Secretary (Irrigation), Punjab, and Raj Kumar Chaudhary, Chief Engineer (North), Rajasthan, had inspected the Harike Barrage and Hussainiwala headworks in December to finalise the plan to repair the gates and desilting work.
Kisan Sangharsh Samiti spokesman Subhash Sehgal said preparations for repair and desilting should be fool-proof to ensure availability of water after wheat harvesting.
