Concrete lining work of Arnauli distributary begins

Ravneet Singh

Tribune News Service

Patiala, January 12

To provide water for irrigation purposes, the State Government has started the work on concrete lining of Arnauli distributary, emerging from ‘burji’ number 120000 of Narwana branch canal at a cost of Rs 46 crore. It will irrigate 5,535 hectares of additional land of 150 villages of Ghanaur and Sanaur constituencies.

Patiala MP Preneet Kaur, while interacting with a delegation of farmers, said under the first phase of this project, work on laying concrete lining till burji number 34700 of Arnauli distributary has already begun. “The lining work of rest of the distributary will also be started soon,” she said.

She added 176 cusecs of water is discharged from Arnauli distributary to irrigate 71,22 hectares of land. “But as the system was more than 60-years-old and has not been lined, the distributary’s capacity of carrying water has reduced considerably. Consequently, farmers at the tail end of Arnauli distributary were not getting adequate water for irrigation.”

MP Preneet said Rs 46 crore will be spent on the project of distributary’s lining, of which work worth Rs 5 crore has already been started. This would provide water to irrigate 5,535 hectares of extra land of 150 villages. “It will bring down the cost of agriculture input for farmers and raise their income.”

She said another 16 cusecs of water from Arnauli distributary irrigation system will be given to Public Health Department to provide drinking water to the people.