Once Khanki barrage is ready, farm outputs will rise 10%

Rs24b project for automation and repair of British-era irrigation network.

KHANKI: The hardships of Arshad Ahmad, a trolley-puller whose family has been pulling ropes, for two generations at the 120-year-old Khanki Headworks, are expected to lessen in three years when he will get a new assignment after the existing obsolete infrastructure is demolished and New Khanki Barrage is constructed with an estimated cost of Rs24 billion.  

Arshad Ahmad and his two-dozen colleagues who are working in low pay scale are manually operating British-era shutters that were placed to divert water from the Chenab River to Lower Chenab Canal aimed at ensuring water supplies for irrigations for the fertile districts of central Punjab.

At present, they are opening and closing as many as 962 shutters by using manually operated trolley over the bridge and boat in the river to pull the shutters. It takes two to three days to change the positions of all the shutters.

Once the New Khanki Barrage is constructed in a span of three years, the task will be performed by just pressing a button from the control room. The work at the site has already begun.



Khanki headworks was constructed in the year 1892 and is one of the oldest weirs in the subcontinent. The weir has deteriorated and outlived its life. At that time, it had been designed and constructed under conditions of extreme economy. The weir was repeatedly damaged in portions and had to be remodelled extensively in 1935.

The damage to the irrigation network at Baluki-Sulemanki juncture in 1997 was the wakeup call for the Punjab Irrigation Department (PID), which carried out studies to strengthen its infrastructure whose replacement cost at present rupee-dollar parity is estimated at $40 billion.

The Executive Committee of National Economic Council had approved the New Khanki Barrage Project in 2009 at an estimated cost of Rs23.5 billion. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has provided a concessionary loan of $270 million for the construction of the new infrastructure.

The $270 million financing for New Khanki Barrage is part of a $900 million multi-tranche facility that the ADB approved in 2006 for Punjab’s irrigation sector. The contract for New Khanki Barrage has been awarded to DESCON Engineering Private Limited. The new barrage will also increase flood safety as its discharge capacity will increase from 800,000 cusecs to 1.1 million cusecs, said Hassan.

Arshad and his colleagues will not lose their jobs as they will be assigned new tasks since the PID is short of labour, said Syed Mahmood-ul-Hasan, the chief engineer at PID and the Project Director of the new barrage project.

The lessening hardships are the additional benefits that the project provides, along with its primary purpose of ensuring sustainable irrigation for 3.3 million acres of land in eight of the most fertile districts of central Punjab. Once completed, the barrage will ensure sustained supplies which will increase agriculture production by 10% and also the farm income by one-tenth, he added.

The replacement of the obsolete infrastructure will also save the canal network of 2,925 channels irrigating more than 3.3 million acres of land in eight districts of central Punjab. These districts include Gujranwala, Hafizabad, Chiniot, Faisalabad, Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib, Jhang and Toba Tek Singh.

“If this fails, the existing Khanki headworks can
cause loss to several crop seasons,” said Hassan while highlighting the flaws in the existing infrastructure.

Hassan said the primary beneficiaries of the project will be about 568,000 farming families in the Lower Chenab Canal command area who will be assured of reliable irrigation supplies and about two million people will directly and indirectly benefit from the project

“The British Empire was more visionary and planned 100 years ahead of time but the infrastructure has outlived its maximum life,” he added.

The irrigated agriculture in Punjab contributes 28% of the province’s Gross Domestic Product. The agriculture sector employs 54% of the labour force and uses more than 95% of the water resources. The PID is responsible for operation, maintenance and management of the irrigation system for 8.4 million hectors.

Due to less availability of irrigation water, the farmers are forced to pump water for irrigation purposes, which is not only ten times more expensive but is causing saline-water intrusion and land degradation, Hassan said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2013.

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