Jhelum Canal, Lower
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Jhelum Canal, Lower
A perennial irrigation work in the Punjab now approaching completion. It takes off from the left bank of the Jhelum river, and will eventually supply perennial irrigation to the whole of the country lying between the Jhelum and the Chenab, west of a line joining the town of Miani on the Jhelum with Pindi Bhattian on the Chenab. The head of the canal" is near the village of Mong Rasul in Gujrat District The river is dammed by a weir 4,100 feet long, and a regulator across the head of the canal takes the form of a bridge of eight spans, of 24 ½ feet each. The main line has a bed-width of 140 feet, and will have when running full a depth of 7.5 feet, and a discharge of 3,800 cubic feet per second, or twice that of the Thames at Teddington. The Shahpur branch will take off at about the twenty-eighth mile of the main line. This branch has been designed to take up the irrigation now performed in Shahpur District by the existing Imperial, Provincial, and privately-owned inundation canals. After a course of 39 miles, in which it gradually approaches the centre of the highlands of the Doab, the canal bifurcates into two main branches, watering the northern and southern portions of the Do£b respectively. The total length of the main line and main branches is about 167 miles, and about 960 miles of distributing channels will be constructed. The canal will protect an area of 2,400 square miles, and is expected to irrigate annually about 1,200 square miles. Of the 2,400 square miles protected, about 850 are crown waste, which it is intended to turn into an immense horse-breeding colony for the supply of remounts to the Indian Army. For this purpose the greater portion has been leased out to colonists on the condition of their keeping an approved brood mare, and other areas have been reserved for public and private breeding establishments and horse runs. The work of colonization is under an officer of the Indian Civil Service, who has his head-quarters at Sargodha in Shahpur Dis- trict The land has been divided into squares of nearly 28 acres each, and one brood mare has to be maintained for every 2 ½ squares. A railway has been constructed from Malakwal on the Sind-Sagar line to Shorkot on the Lyallpur-Khanewal line, affording facilities for the immigration of colonists and the export of their produce.
Elaborate precautions have been taken to prevent waterlogging of the soil by over-irrigation. The depth at which spring-water is found below the surface of the ground has been carefully observed over the whole of the commanded area, and the country has been divided into three zones according to those depths. Where the spring-level is 40 feet or more below the surface, 50 per cent, of the gross area commanded may be irrigated; where the depth lies between 25 and 40 feet, 40 per cent, of the area will be irrigated ; and where the water is nearer to the surface than 25 feet, only 25 per cent, will be allowed perennial irrigation, and powers have been reserved to reduce these supplies if they should be found to be in excess of requirements. On the Shahpur branch 50 per cent, of the area will be irrigated.
The canal was opened on October 30, 1901 ; and irrigation is now well advanced, except on the Shahpur branch, the construction of which has only just been commenced. It is estimated that this canal will cost when finished 187.5 lakhs, and will give a return of 15.8 per cent on the capital spent upon it, and that ten years after completion the net revenue will exceed the interest charges by 192 lakhs.
