Sukkur barrage gate damaged by ‘tree collision’: Provincial Minister

Sindh According to Irrigation Minister Jam Khan Shoro last night Sukkur Barrage Gate No. 47 has been damaged by a ‘heavy object’, following which its bridge has been closed to traffic, imposing an emergency on the barrage.

With the support of the World Bank, the Irrigation Department of Sindh Province, except for the repair of Sukkur barrage in April, the work of replacing all the gates was going on since April. During the repair, the gate of the barrage was damaged.

Speaking to Independent Urdu, Jam Khan Shoro said: ‘After the damage to gate number 47, all the gates of the barrage have been opened to reduce the water pressure on the remaining gates and see how much damage was done to 47. Is.

At this time, due to the presence of water in the barrage, the damage to the gate cannot be estimated. Apart from examining the gate following the water recedes, the work of installing a new gate will be started with the help of irrigation experts and Chinese engineers.

He added: ‘Apart from gate number 47, gate number 43 has also been partially damaged. But in case of water it is not possible to estimate the damage. We have seen in the video that something heavy in the shape of a tree hit, which damaged the door.’

From April 2024, the ‘Rehabilitation and Modernization Project’ is being looked following by the ‘Sindh Barrages Improvement Project’, a subsidiary of the Sindh Irrigation Department.

Under this project, the first and historic Sukkur Barrage to be constructed on the Indus River will be repaired and 56 gates will be replaced out of a total of 66 gates.

According to the records of the irrigation department, this repair work on Sukkur barrage is being done following 32 years. The earlier renovation work started in 1987 was completed in 1992.

According to Jam Khan Shoro, the repair work of Sukkur Barrage will be completed by 2028.

In response to a question, Jam Khan Shoro said: ‘Our department had conducted a survey of Sukkur Barrage in 2018, in which it was reported that all the gates of the barrage are in a dilapidated state and if not repaired, there might be a huge loss. Is. Only following that the repair work was started.’

According to Jam Khan Shoro, opening of all the gates of Sukkur Barrage to inspect and repair the damage has reduced the ‘pond level’ of the barrage, causing water to flow into the canals on the right and left sides of the barrage. not enough.

According to Irrigation Department records, the Sukkur Barrage is the largest irrigation system in the world, giving rise to seven major canals, four including the Nara Canal, Rohri Canal, Khairpur Feeder East and Khairpur Feeder West on the left side of the barrage, while Three canals from the right side include Dadu Canal, Rice Canal and Northwest Canal supplying water to Balochistan.

At the time of construction of Sukkur barrage, the command area of ​​this barrage, i.e. where the water from this barrage reaches for irrigation, was 8 million acres of land, which was increased considerably later.

Mumtaz Bukhari, a Sukkur journalist who has been reporting on Sukkur Barrage for the past three decades, told Independent Urdu that at the moment sowing of kharif crops is at its peak in the command area of ​​Sukkur Barrage and in such a situation water in the canals due to damage to the barrage gate. There is a fear of damage to the agriculture of Sindh due to the lack of

This section contains related reference points (Related Nodes field).

According to Mumtaz Bukhari: ‘Usually the water level at Sukkur barrage rises following the monsoon rains in June or July, but this year the farmers have cultivated rice on a large scale due to the early arrival of water.

If water is not received on time, apart from the farmers, the country can also suffer. Along with the agricultural loss, there is also fear of silt accumulation on the Sukkur barrage, due to which the water capacity in the barrage will decrease in the coming days.’

According to Mumtaz Bukhari, a gate was damaged in this way in 1981, following which the barrage was repaired.

The Sukkur Barrage is built on the Indus River near Sukkur, the third largest city in the southern Sindh province of Pakistan and the second largest economic center following Karachi. Sukkur Barrage is the first barrage to be built on the Indus River, the construction of which was started in 1923 during the British rule.

It took nine years to build and is intended for irrigation and flood protection.

The barrage was then named Lloyd Barrage following the then Governor of Bombay, George Ambrose Lloyd, which was later changed to Sukkur Barrage.

There are currently six barrages on the Indus River, including the Jinnah Barrage in the upper reaches of the river, which is located at Kalabagh in Punjab. The second barrage is Chashma barrage which is built near Bakhra Sharif in Mianwali district of Punjab.

The third is Taunsa Barrage, which is located on the Indus River 80 miles south of Kalabagh Headworks.

The fourth barrage is the Guddu Barrage near Kashmore district of Sindh, while the fifth is the Sukkur Barrage and the sixth is the Kotri Barrage, which was constructed in 1955 on the Indus River between the cities of Hyderabad and Jamshoro in Sindh.