The Sutlej Valley Project

PUNJAB is already famous for its canals, through which the rivers of the province are made to yield their waters for the prosperity and well-being of lakhs of peasants. It is due to these canals that about one crore acres of land is irrigated, and Punjab has come to be called the granary of India. The latest addition to this wonderful system of canals will be the Sutlej Valley Project, which when completed, will be, in the words of Sir Malcolm Hailey, one of the greatest engineering triumphs not only in India but in the whole world. This system of canals will irrigate about 9 million acres, of which 3.5 million is an entirely desert tract in South-Eastern Punjab and the states of Bikaner and Bahawalpur. The project includes the construction of three barrages on the Sutlej, one near the Kaiser-i-Hind Bridge, one at Suleimanke 60 miles in a direct line down the river, and the third at Islam 80 miles still further down. A fourth barrage will be constructed in the Panjnad, at the confluence of the Sutlej and the Chenab where the waters of the five rivers of Punjab come together to form the stream that flows on to join the Indus. The scheme is a most ambitious and gigantic undertaking, and both in point of its magnitude and boldness is unsurpassed not only in India but the whole world. It had been before the government for a number of years, but actual work started about three years ago. It was only in 1920 that after many years of controversy, an agreement was arrived at between the three partners in the scheme — the British Government in Punjab, the Bikaner state and the Bahawalpur state.