Kabul River Canal
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Kabul River Canal
A perennial irrigation work in the Peshawar District of the North-West Frontier Province. It is a revival of an old Mughal canal, and takes off from the right bank of the Kabul river at the village of Warsak on the border of British territory, about 3 miles up-stream from Michni Fort. The main line is 20 feet in width at the off-take, and can carry more than 300 cubic feet a second. It crosses the watershed of the country, passing over thirty-six drainage channels of greater or less size, and running close to Peshawar terminates at the fortieth mile near Naushahra. The distributaries include four branches, with a total length of 19 miles, the largest being the Kuror branch, 9$ miles long. A small private canal is situated near the canal head. The tract commanded is a long narrow strip of irregular width, bounded on the south and west by the canal itself, and on the north and east, for the upper two-thirds of its length, by the low-lying ground irrigated by old proprietary canals, of which the Jui Shaikh is the most important ; while for the lower third of its length the Kabul river is the boundary.
The area now commanded exceeds 30,000 acres. It is at present considerably interspersed with that irrigated by the Jui Shaikh and other private canals, as well as by the Bara river works ; but there seems every prospect of the greater portion of all this area ultimately coming under the canal. Irrigation is chiefly for the autumn harvest, and the area of crops actually irrigated during the three years ending 1902 averaged 30,173 acres; in 1903-4 it was 27,800 acres. The canal was opened in 1893, the Kuror branch being added subsequently. The capital cost up to March, 1904, was Rs. 6,45,000, and the net income in 1903-4 was Rs. 90,800, giving a return of nearly 24 per cent. On October 1, 1903, the revenue management of this canal was taken over by the Irrigation department. An extension called the Hazar Khani branch is now under construction.
