Head Balloki or Balloki Headworks is a barrage on the

Ravi River The Ravi River () is a transboundary river crossing northwestern India and eastern Pakistan. It is one of five rivers associated with the Punjab region. Under the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, the waters of the Ravi and two other rivers were ...

in the

Punjab, Pakistan Punjab (; , ) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in central-eastern region of the country, Punjab is the second-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the largest province by population. It shares land borders with the ...

.it is 70 KM distance from

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

. It was first built around in 1915 in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

as part of the 'Triple Canals Project' to feed the

Lower Bari Doab Canal The Lower Bari Doab Canal is a canal in Punjab, Pakistan. Part of the part of the second-largest irrigation system of the province, it serves approximately 275,000 farmsteads. It is located south-west of Lahore and runs alongside the River Ravi. ...

. The canal turned in a profit of 24% within ten years (in 1928–29). The original

weir A weir or low head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the river level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

has now been rebuilt as a full barrage.

History

The Triple Canals project in Punjab began in 1905, soon after the completion of the

Upper Bari Doab Canal Madhopur Headworks is a barrage on the Ravi River, just 14km from Pathankot city in Pathankot district in the Indian state of Punjab. It is located on the border with Jammu and Kashmir. The Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC) off-taking from Madhopur ir ...

(UBDC). Thus it was the second irrigation project to be implemented in Punjab. It constructed three canals: * the

Upper Jhelum Canal The Upper Jhelum Canal is an irrigation canal in Pakistan that provides water to 1.8 million acres of farmland. The Upper Jhelum Canal starts at the Jhelum River at Mangla Dam. It runs through Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin in Punjab, Pakistan, a ...

(UJC) from

Mangla Mangla (منگلا) is a town situated in District Mirpur within the region of Azad Kashmir. The village is located in the west of the foothills of Mangla's fort (which also derived its name from the same village). It is surrounded on three sides ...

* the

Upper Chenab Canal Marala Headworks is a headworks situated on the Chenab River near the city of Sialkot in Punjab, Pakistan. A weir was first built during 1906–1912 in British India to feed the Upper Chenab Canal, as part of the 'Triple Canals Project'. A new ...

(UCC) from

Marala Marala, also known as Murala, is a village in Gujrat District of Punjab province, Pakistan. It is located at 32°38'60N 74°30'0E and has an altitude of 234 metres. Notable people *Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry 5th President of Pakistan from 1973 until 1978 ...

* the

(LBDC) from Balloki. The Upper Chenab and Lower Bari were linked at Balloki: the former brought water from Chenab to Ravi, and recharged it after depletion into the Upper Bari Canal. The Lower Bari Doab Canal then took the combined waters from Ravi and UCC down the Bari doab for irrigating lands. This was the origin of the "link canal" concept, bringing waters from the western rivers into the eastern rivers of Punjab, which later became the foundation for the

Indus Waters Treaty The Indus Water Treaty (IWT) is a water-distribution treaty between India and Pakistan, arranged and negotiated by the World Bank, to use the water available in the Indus River and its tributaries. It was signed in Karachi on 19 September 1960 ...

between present-day India and Pakistan. Where the Upper Chenab joined the Ravi river from the right, a few miles west of the village of Balloki, the Balloki Barrage was constructed. It was the largest barrage of its kind in India at that time. It had a 1,647-foot-long weir with thirty-five 12-metre-wide steel gates for regulating the water of Ravi. The Lower Bari Doab Canal branched off on the left of the barrage. The canal started supplying water in 1912 and got fully completed in 1917. It irrigated 877,000 acres of land in the Montgomery and

Multan Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab. Multan is one of the List ...

districts. The total cost of the LBDC project was Rs. 22 million. It became profitable within 10 years.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Balloki, Head Kasur District Dams in Punjab, Pakistan Hydroelectric power stations in Pakistan British Indian history Dams on the Ravi River

History

See also

References

Bibliography