Jalalpur Canal

Jalalpur Canal or Jalalpur Irrigation Project is proposed for the northern bank of the Jhelum River from Rasul Barrage / Rasul Headworks up until Khushāb. It will also irrigate the uncultivated lands of Pind Dadan Khan.

Project

The command area of JIP is in form of a long strip of land bounded by the salt range hills on northern side and Jhelum River on southern side.
It would consists of:

117 km long main canal with 23 distributaries & 10 minor canals of 93 km
Irrigating 170,000 hectares of land
Construction & fixing of 485 ravines
10000 acre of Land levelling
72 modern irrigation systems on 2000 Acre land
18 flood infrastructures
20 water storage ponds & solar pumping stations
17 drinking water outlets in 26 localities
Drip irrigation system on 1941 acres

There are about 59, flowing across the JIP and ultimately falling into Jhelum River. The climate in the project area is hot and arid.

Summer : 18°C to 46°C
winter.

The rainfall is low and erratic. The pan evaporation is 3 times of average yearly rainfall, requiring irrigation essential for crop production.
88% of the project will be funded by the Asian Development Bank and the rest 12% by the Govt of Punjab.

History

In British Raj during the construction of Rasul Barrage, a northern dividing-wall was built for this upcoming project.
This project was also provisioned during the rebuild of Rasul Barrage in 1967.
The feasibility studies of the project exist from 1992-93 which was updated in 2010. Another study was done from Mar 2014 - Nov 2015.
In 1995 during the M-2 Motorway construction near Lillah Interchange, a passageway towards Lahore was created for the proposed canal.
Earliest document date mentioned on Asian Development Bank is July 2013 in the Project Data Sheet section.
Topographic survey was carried out in 2016.
Recent ground-breaking was done on 26 Dec 2019 by the Prime Minister