Agriculture is an important driver of Punjab province’s economic growth and a pillar of Pakistan’s food security. During the early 2000s, it accounted for more than 26% of Punjab’s gross domestic product and employed over 40% of the provincial labor force. Punjab’s contribution to the country’s agricultural production was estimated at 57%. The province’s agricultural productivity was however challenged by its underperforming irrigation infrastructure and institutions.
To help address the situation, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a 4-tranche, $900 million multitranche financing facility (MFF) for the Punjab Irrigated Agriculture Investment Program in December 2006. This report covers MFF tranche 2, approved for a loan of $270 million in December 2011, which aimed to construct a new Khanki Barrage on the Chenab River to divert river water to the Lower Chenab Canal (LCC) and irrigate 1.2 million hectares (ha) of farmland. Construction of the new Khanki Barrage was requested by the government to be covered by the MFF, after the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which earlier had the project in its portfolio, decided to put its resources behind other related priorities.
ADB drew on the feasibility study, detailed design, and tender documents prepared by the Punjab Irrigation Department (PID), with JICA assistance, to finalize the tranche 2 project, which envisaged introducing modern technologies in gate operation to increase the efficiency and reliability of irrigation water supply in the project area. Operation of the automated barrage gates was to be supported by a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system that would enable automated regulation of the gates, monitoring of irrigation canal water flow at key distribution points, data collection and transmission, and television camera-based surveillance.
In accordance with the MFF investment program, the project’s anticipated impact was improved agricultural production and farm income in the seven districts comprising the LCC command area. Its intended outcome was sustainably improved delivery of services for irrigated agriculture and better water management in the LCC command areas. Besides constructing a modern new Khanki Barrage, the project also aimed to improve PID’s project management capacity as an output.
The new Khanki Barrage was constructed as designed. The old barrage was dismantled and replaced with a modern one that can provide 330 cubic meters per second (m3/s) of irrigation water and has an increased flood discharge capacity of 31,150 m3/s against 100-year probable floods. Annual diversion to the LCC was raised to a maximum of 8,286 million cubic meters (m3). Annual water leakage was reduced.
In addition to a much-enhanced automated barrage, the project also constructed a road bridge across the Chenab River, and built or rehabilitated a total of 3 kilometers (km) of approach roads to the new barrage. This significantly improved the connectivity between towns and cities on both sides of the river and shortened travel distance between the two sides by about 30 km. Furthermore, the project financed the construction of a girls’ school, basic health unit, and recreational center and park, benefiting communities around the new barrage, especially women and children.
Construction of the new Khanki Barrage as designed enabled the project to achieve its outcome targets of (i) diverting to the LCC 326 m3/s or irrigation water for at least 90% of the year and (ii) providing a climate-resilient infrastructure by strengthening flood design capacity from 1-in-50 return period to 1-in-100 return period. As of project completion, 568,000 farming families benefitted from reliable irrigation water supplies.
PID was the executing agency. PID’s project management office for barrages was responsible for day-to-day project implementation.
