Punjab prepares Rs1,000-cr plan to tame Swan

The Punjab Government has prepared a Rs 1,000-crore plan to channelise the rain-fed Swan, a tributary of the Sutlej that had added large volumes of water to the main river, resulting in floods in parts of the state.

According to sources, the plan will soon be submitted for approval to the Union Ministry for Water Resources. If approved, it would be one of the major projects undertaken in Punjab to channelise a river.

A source said the state might also propose a dam on the Swan in Ropar district to tame the river, which originates in Himachal Pradesh’s Una and meets Sutlej near Kiratpur Sahib after traversing around 40 km in Punjab. According to the Punjab Irrigation Department, the Swan added 90,000 cusecs of water to the Sutlej in peak monsoon season this year.

The Himachal Pradesh Government had channelised the entire stretch of the river and it’s 600 tributaries in its territory, spending about Rs 2,000 crore under a project supported by the Union ministry. Punjab Education Minister and Anandpur Sahib MLA Harjot Singh Bains confirmed that a project worth Rs 1,000 crore had been prepared to the channelise the Swan.

He said the project would not only reduce the threat of floods but also open new avenues for tourism in the region. Bains said the tiver, which had been long associated with floods, would help usher in development in areas fed by it.

“With the project, new centres of tourism would emerge along the river, creating job opportunities for the local population,” he said. The sources here said the British had initially proposed a dam on the river to prevent flooding. Surveys for a dam on the Swan were initiated after the Independence.

Due to financial constraints and the urgent need for the Bhakra-Nangal project, the proposal never materialised.

This year’s floods reignited the debate on the urgency of taming the tributaries of the Sutlej, including the Swan and Sirsa, which continue to pose a major flood threat to districts like Ropar, Ludhiana, Ferozepur, Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur.