Process to build 151-km-long canal along Indira Gandhi feeder gets underway

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, November 6

Amid the controversy on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal, the Punjab Government has started the process to construct a new canal of 151-km length, parallel to the Indira Gandhi Feeder Canal, to decrease dependency on groundwater.

To use vacant land of rajasthan govt

To construct this canal, the state government will use the Rajasthan Government land lying vacant/surplus along the feeder canal. The Punjab Government has already taken up the issue with its Rajasthan counterpart.

The Department of Water Resources, Punjab, has asked the Revenue Department officials in Faridkot, Ferozepur and Muktsar districts to provide the land record of the vacant land running parallel to the feeder canal.

The proposed canal will originate from Harike Barrage in Ferozepur, few kilometers down river from the confluence of the Sutlej and Beas, and end on the Punjab-Rajasthan inter-state border.

To construct this canal, the state government will use the Rajasthan Government land lying vacant/surplus along the feeder canal. The Punjab Government has already taken up the issue with the Rajasthan Government for utilising this vacant land, reads the letters sent by the Department of Water Resources to the revenue officers of three districts.

The department has asked the revenue officers to provide complete revenue record of this vacant land from RD 6059 to RD 490573, running parallel to the feeder canal, to the department.

The vacant land, measuring about 1,250 acres along the canal, has been lying unused for more than 70 years in Ferozepur, Faridkot and Muktsar districts. The canal (earlier known as Rajasthan Feeder Canal) was constructed in 1952 but 1,250 acres remained unused since then.

Presently, a major portion of this ‘vacant’ land is under encroachment. In 2021, the then Executive Engineer, Indira Gandhi Feeder Canal, had issued notices to some illegal occupants to vacate the land and pay annual user charges for illegal use of this land.

Sources in the Department of Water Resources revealed that with the construction of this canal of 6,000 cusecs capacity, the state government wants to decrease dependency on groundwater. Presently, canals irrigate about 27 per cent agriculture land in the state.

Demand for canal water has increased in the south-west districts of Punjab and there is only Sirhind canal for agriculturally dominant Faridkot, Fazilka, Muktsar, Bathinda and Ferozepur districts to meet the demand.

The capacity of this canal is highly inadequate, so the state government has decided to construct a canal on the left side of the Rajasthan feeder canal, reads the letter.

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