View source for Jhelum Canal, Lower

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This article has been extracted from <br/>

THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908.<br/>

OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.
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[[Category:India|J]]
[[Category:Places|J]]
''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.