Farakka Barrage

Farakka Barrage is a barrage across the Ganges River, located in the Indian state of West Bengal, roughly 16.5 kilometres (10.3 mi) from the border with Bangladesh near Chapai Nawabganj District. Construction was started in 1961 and completed in 1975 at a cost of ₹156.49 crore (US$23 million). Operations began on April 21, 1975. The barrage is about 2,240 metres (7,350 ft) long. The feeder canal from the barrage to the Bhagirathi-Hooghly River is about 25 miles (40 km) long.

Purpose

The purpose of the barrage is to divert 1,100 cubic metres per second (40,000 cu ft/s) of water from the Ganges to the Hooghly River for flushing out the sediment deposition from the Kolkata harbour without the need of regular mechanical dredging. After commissioning the project, it was found that the diverted water flow from the Farakka barrage was not adequate to flush the sediment from the river satisfactorily. In addition, there are regular land/bank collapses in to the Ganga river due to the high level back waters of the Farakka barrage. Substantial high land is already converted into low level river bed causing displacement of huge population. The water diverted from the Farakka barrage is less than 10% of Ganga river water available at Farakka. The Indian government is contemplating to cement line/widen/deepen the Farakka feeder canal to increase the flow.