Indira Gandhi Canal Repair completed in record time

Indira Gandhi Canal Repair completed in record time

Subject : Economy

Context : In an engineering feat, the repair and relining of the Indira Gandhi Canal, the country’s longest canal which terminates in irrigation facilities in Thar desert, was accomplished in a record 60-day period amid the second wave of the pandemic, restoring 70 km of both the main canal and the feeder distributaries.

Concept :

About

• Indira Gandhi Canal is one of the largest canal systems located in Rajasthan, India.
• Previously called the Rajasthan Canal.
• Conceived by KanwarSain in 1948,
• It was launched on 31st March 1958.
• The canal originates at Harike barrage in Punjab and runs parallel to the Pakistan border at an average distance of 40 km in Thar Desert (Marusthali) of Rajasthan.
• The total planned length of the system is 9,060 km catering to the irrigation needs of a total culturable command area of 19.63 lakh hectares.
• Out of the total command area, about 70 percent was envisaged to be irrigated by the flow system and the rest by the lift system.
• The construction work is of two stages: Stage-I and Stage-II

STAGE-I:

• The command area of Stage-I lies in Ganganagar, Hanumangarh and northern part of Bikaner districts. It has a gently undulating topography and its culturable command area is 5.53 lakh hectares.

STAGE-II:

• The command area of Stage-II is spread over Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Barmer, Jodhpur, Nagaur and Churu districts covering an area of 14.10 lakh hectares. It comprises desert land dotted with shifting sand dunes and temperature soaring to 50oC in summers.
• In the lift canal, the water is lifted up to make it flow against the slope of the land. All the lift canals of the Indira Gandhi Canal system originate at the left bank of the main canal while all the canals on the right bank of the main canal are flow channels.