Indira Gandhi Canal (IGNP): Stages, Lift Canals, Districts Notes

At a glance

The water comes from the Harike barrage, at the confluence of the Sutlej and the Beas in Punjab.
The main canal ends near Mohangarh in Jaisalmer district (asked in CET Graduation 2024).
Proposed in 1948 by Kanwar Sen, chief engineer of Bikaner state; known as the Rajasthan Canal Project until 2 November 1984, when it was renamed after Indira Gandhi in her memory.

Foundation stone	31 March 1958, laid by Govind Ballabh Pant, then Union Home Minister
Rajasthan Feeder	204 km: about 169 km in Punjab and Haryana, then 35 km in Rajasthan to the Masitawali head (then Ganganagar district, now Hanumangarh), where the main canal begins
Districts	Sri Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Bikaner, Barmer, Jaisalmer, Churu and Jodhpur (Phalodi and Balotra districts have since been formed from Jodhpur and Barmer)
Whole project	About 15 lakh ha (1,500,000 ha) can be irrigated

Stage	Main canal	Branch and distribution canals	Area to be irrigated (sources differ)	Branches and works
Stage I	189 km, from Masitawali to near Sattasar village, 20 km from Pugal (Bikaner district)	About 2,950 km	5.25 lakh ha (JICA, 2003) · 5.36 lakh ha (Bhalla, 1989)	Suratgarh, Anupgarh and Pugal branches; the Lunkaransar–Bikaner lift canal
Stage II	256 km, from Sattasar to the end of the main canal, 445 km from Masitawali	About 5,000 km (JICA, 2003) · 5,830 km (Bhalla, 1989)	10.12 lakh ha	Shaheed Sagarmal Gopa branch; lift canals; work began in 1972–73

Lunkaransar–Bikaner lift canal (Stage I): four pumping stations lift the water 60 m; it can irrigate about 51,000 ha and gives drinking and industrial water to Bikaner and nearby areas.
Stage II lift canals as planned in the 1980s: Sahwa (for Ganganagar and Churu), Kolayat and Gajner (Bikaner), Phalodi (then Jodhpur district, now Phalodi) and Pokaran (Jaisalmer), lifting water up to 60 m to irrigate about 3.12 lakh ha in Sri Ganganagar, Churu, Bikaner, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer districts as they then were.
Hanumangarh district: the canal irrigates the Tibbi, Hanumangarh, Pilibanga and Rawatsar tehsils.
Drinking water: a Jal Jeevan Mission scheme is to take the canal's water to the remaining villages and towns of Sikar and Jhunjhunu (in July 2024 it was expected to be finished by 2026), and a JICA-aided project (loan agreement 28 September 2012) takes it to the south and east of Nagaur district as it then was.

649 kmRBSE gives it as the canal's total length · Bhalla (1989) gives it as the length of the main canal extended to Gadra Road in Barmer, which was first planned at 445 km, to Ramgarh in Jaisalmer.
Ganganagar in old booksHanumangarh district was formed from Sri Ganganagar on 12 July 1994, so older books give Ganganagar for the whole area.