Indira Gandhi Project and Bhakra Nangal Project

Indira Gandhi Project and Bhakra Nangal Project

Multipurpose Project:

A comprehensive river valley project that serves a number of purposes simultaneously is called multipurpose river valley project. Multipurpose river valley projects serve many purposes such as controlling floods, irrigating lands, generating electricity and attracting tourists. The multipurpose river valley projects help in the storage of water. Stored water can be utilized for agriculture and domestic purpose. These projects generate electricity for domestic consumption.

The Indira Gandhi Project:

Indira Gandhi Canal system also called the Rajasthan Canal System, is the longest irrigation canal system in the world. The canal serves as a passage for waters of three rivers, the Beas, the Ravi and the Sutlej to a large area of cultivable land. The 468 kilometers long canal caters mostly to the regions of north-western India.

The Pong dam built across the river Beas diverts the water from Beas into the Sutlej river. The Rajasthan Canal supplies the regulated water to the district of Gandhinagar, Bikaner and Jaisalmer. The canal supplies water to a large part of Thar Desert. The waters of the Beas, the Ravi and the Sutlej are not fully integrated and utilized for the purpose of agricultural growth in the regions.

The Bhakra-Nangal Project:

The Bhakra-Nangal project is India’s biggest multipurpose river valley project and one of the largest of its kind in the world. The project has the highest gravity dam in the world. The Dam built across the river Sutlej has a height of226 meters. The project has cultivable command area of nearly 1.4 million hectares. The project supplies water to these land areas through 1100 long canal system.

The project has a power station at Nangal. This power station caters to the power needs of five northern states. The Nangal power plant supplies electricity to the states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and New Delhi.