Posted on March 2, 2016
Dredging of the canal and distributary network of the Karanja Major Irrigation Project has been taken up to ensure that the water reaches the tail-end farmers without hurdles.
Jagannath Halangi, Chief Engineer of the Kalaburagi Irrigation Zone, told The Hindu on Tuesday that the work on dredging of the main canals on the right and left banks along with the distributaries had been taken up simultaneously and they would be completed before the release of water in the next season.
Although the water in the main canals in the right and left banks is clear and clean in the initial portions, Mr. Halangi said that the situation was bad in the interior portions. The silted up main canals and distributaries were a common sight there. In a few reaches, the canals and distributary network were not visible with silt and thorny bushes covering them up.
He said that after the completion of dredging and clearing of thorny bushes from the canals and the distributary network, the work on plugging the seepages in the canals would be taken up to ensure that the released water did not enter the farmers’ fields along the route of the canal. There was also a proposal to develop the Karanja Major Irrigation Project, one of the oldest irrigation project taken up in 1970s, as a drought relief work for the modernisation of the canal and distributary network.
