Ganga Canal Closed From Dussehra To Diwali For Annual Cleaning; Water Supply To UP; Delhi Affected

The water supply to the Ganga Canal from Haridwar was shut down on the night of October 2 as part of the Irrigation Department's annual closure program. The canal will remain closed for essential cleaning and desilting work until the night of Diwali, with the water supply scheduled to be restored on October 21, 2025.

During the closure, the Irrigation Department will undertake a massive desilting of the canal's distributaries and minors to ensure uninterrupted water flow for farmers.

According to Executive Engineer Vikas Tyagi, the project details are as follows:

Total Length to be Cleaned: 680 km across the Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and Anupshahr divisions.

Breakdown: This includes 400 km of distributaries and 280 km of minors.

Budget: The government has sanctioned Rs 3.28 crore for this work.

The primary goal of the annual closure is to ensure that after the cleaning, irrigation water can flow smoothly to the tail end of the canal system, directly benefiting farmers.

Canal Operations And Water Management

The Ganga Canal, which flows 290 km from Haridwar to Aligarh, normally carries a water supply of approximately 12,000 cusecs.

To manage the supply during the shutdown period, water has been stored and will be released intermittently from three key locations where the canal is closed off with gates:

- Bhola ki Jhal in Meerut

- Sonia Vihar plant in Delhi

- Bhagirathi plant in Delhi

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This stored water will provide a limited supply for the next 15 days as the effect of the main closure from Haridwar gradually reaches the tail end of the canal system.

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