The state government has submitted an ambitious Rs 600-crore project to the Union Ministry of Water Resources for channelising 73 tributaries of the Swan river in Una district. It is learned that state had proposed in the said project that about 7,000 hectare agriculture land could be reclaimed if all the 73 tributaries of the Swan would be channelised.
Minister for Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Ravinder Ravi said the project was likely to be passed by the Union Ministry of Water Resources soon. Principally, the ministry has accepted the proposal of the state to channelise all the tributaries of the Swan.
The Swan was once known as “the sorrow of Una district” as almost every year during the monsoon season, flash floods in the river used to wash away large tracks of agriculture land. Due to flash floods in the river, farmers had stopped cultivating large tracks of their land located near its banks.
However, now the major portion of the Swan in Una district has been channelised. An amount of over Rs 300 crore had been spent on channelisation of the Swan canal in Una. The project to channelise the Swan is now nearing completion.
About 10,000 hectares of agriculture land has been already reclaimed due to channelisation of the Swan river in Una district till date.
