Ganga canal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Ganga canal is a canal of the Ganga river which was a brainchild of Proby Cautley.
Cautly began worked towards his dream of building a Ganga canal, and spent six months walking and riding through the area taking each measurement himself. He was confident that a 500-kilometre canal was feasible. There were many obstacles and objections to his project, mostly financial, but Cautley persevered and eventually persuaded the British East India Company to back him.
Digging of the canal began in 1840. Cautley had to make his own bricks, brick kiln and mortar. Initially, he was opposed by the Hindu priests at Haridwar, who felt that the waters of the holy river Ganga would be imprisoned but Cautley pacified them by agreeing to leave a gap in the dam from where the water could flow unchecked. He further appeased the priests by undertaking the repair of bathing ghats along the river. He also inaugurated the dam by the worship of Lord Ganesh, the god of good beginnings.
The dam was faced with many complications- among them was the problem of the mountainous streams that threatened the canal. Near Roorkee, the land fell away sharply and Cautley had to build an aqueduct to carry the canal for half a kilometre. As a result, at Roorkee the canal is 25 metres higher than the original river.
When the canal formally opened on 8 April 1854, its main channel was 348 miles long, its branches 306 miles long and the various tributaries over 3000 miles long. Over 767,000 acres in 5,000 villages were irrigated.
