Sambalpur: Plans are afoot for renovation of Huma tail distributary and Paramanpur distributary canals which are branch canals of Sasan canal- the lifeline of agriculture in Sambalpur district, a report said.
The matter came to fore after the water resources department (Hirakud dam upper basin) floated a tender worth Rs 55 crore for renovation of these two canals November 13. The work on the two canals will start soon once the tender is finalised, executive engineer Pramod Panda of water resources department said.
Panda said along with the renovation of these two branch canals, the renovation of Sasan canal will also begin for which Rs 64 crore has been sanctioned earlier. The Odisha Construction Corporation Ltd (OCCL) will undertake the renovation of Sasan canal while the water resources department will implement the renovation works of Huma and Paramanpur canals, he said.
The renovation was necessitated as Sasan canal, built 50-years ago, is in a dilapidated condition and is in urgent need of repair. The main canal is 80 kilometre in length while the branch canal and channel are 300 kilometre in length.
The tender process is expected to get completed within a period of two months and the work on renovation of these two canals is likely to start after harvesting of Rabi crops. Panda, however, admitted that farmers are left with only one month after the harvest of Rabi crops before they start the next cultivation.
This one month period will not be sufficient for the completion of renovation works for which farmers will be urged to stop cultivation work for a season. This will help in preventing water loss in the canal. The canals are in a dilapidated condition and irrigation facilities will be available downstream once they are renovated.
A 15 kilometre stretch of Huma canal and 10 kilometre stretch of Paramanpur canal will be renovated in the first phase. Walls will be built on both sides of these two canals. Rs 22.20 crore has been sanctioned for Paramanpur canal and Rs 33 crore for renovation of Huma canal in a single financial year. Irrigation facilities will be available to the farmlands of the farmers once these two canals are renovated.
Notably, over 40,000 farmers are dependent on these two canals which help in irrigating crops on 25,000 hectare of farmlands in both Kharif and rabi season as well as non-paddy crops. However, lack of water flow downstream often results in unpleasant situations between various groups of farmers.
PNN