From Bane To Boon – Channelisation Of Swan River
www.myhimachal.us

March 31, 2008
Shimla: Known as the sorrow of Una, the Swan River after partial
channelisation is turning around the agrarian economy with
introduction of cash crops as more and more lands is reclaimed from a
catchment area that suffered periodic floods and massive soil erosion.

Irrigation minister Ravinder Ravi told My Himachal News, for
channelising the second phase of this seasonal river system National
Bank of Rural Development (NABARD) has released Rs 40.30 crore. The
first phase on which Rs 106 crore are being spend is nearing
completion, he added.

The river system with a catchment area of 1400 square kilometers in
only 85 kilometers long of which 65 Kms with and catchment area of
1200 square kilometers is in Himachal. The remaining part is in
Punjab.

Under Phase I about 2260 hectares of land has been reclaimed and it
has started providing gainful employment to many farming families,
says Satpal Satti, a legislator from Una district.

"The crops grown range from potato, sugarcane, kinnow, oranges and
some families successfully taken to fisheries," said Satti.

Sensing the potential for growing sugarcane in the Swan catchment
area, the previous government had approved two sugarcane mills for
Una district.

Ravi said "till the proposal of channelisation was taken up in 1999,
under the earlier tenure of the BJP government the 37 season streams
that constitute the river system used to wreck havoc. Not only was
there massive erosion but vast stretches of land remained inundated
destroying crops and property."

He said that the NABARD funds just released would help in stabilizing
additional 5 kilometers of the river system. Over Rs 200 crore would
be needed to complete the remaining embankment of Swan River in
Himachal. Phase III of the project would help to reclaim land in the
Punjab. The fully treated river system would make additional 7260
hectares available for cultivation in Himachal and would bring about
a green revolution in Una district, said Ravinder Ravi.

Written by Ravinder Makhaik ·