The third phase of the Mahakali Irrigation Project has completed irrigation structures designed to serve 5,000 hectares in Kanchanpur, including a 28-kilometre main canal running from Brahmadev to Phuleli in Shuklaphanta Municipality. But the canals remain without water because the Indian side has not released water from Tanakpur, leaving infrastructure built with an investment of around 10 billion rupees unused. In the latest reported status, 14 branch canals are complete and eight others are in the final stage of construction.
Canal network built, water still unavailable
The project’s third phase has established the main canal and a network of branches intended to carry irrigation water across the designated area. The main canal stretches 28 kilometres from Brahmadev to Phuleli, while the completed branch canals extend the distribution system beyond the main channel. Fourteen branches are finished, and construction on eight more is nearing completion.
Together, the structures are capable of irrigating 5,000 hectares. That capacity, however, depends on water reaching the canal network. With no release from Tanakpur, the main canal and its branches cannot deliver irrigation water to the land they were designed to serve. The contrast is central to the project’s current status: construction has advanced, but the system remains unable to perform its intended function.
The physical progress and the water supply are separate parts of the irrigation arrangement. The canals provide the route for moving water, while a release from Tanakpur is needed for that water to enter the system. According to the reported project situation, the required release from the Indian side has not taken place. As a result, completed infrastructure and the water needed to use it have not come together.
Investment without irrigation delivery
Around 10 billion rupees has been invested in the third phase, according to the project summary. Despite that expenditure and the substantial construction completed, the canals have not begun delivering water. The investment has produced structures with a stated irrigation capacity, but that capacity remains unrealised while the water supply is unavailable.
The gap between construction and operation is particularly clear in the condition of the branch canals. Fourteen are complete and eight are close to completion, yet the status of construction alone does not establish that farms can receive irrigation. Water must first be released from Tanakpur and reach the canal network. Until that happens, the completed branches remain part of an unfinished service in practical terms, even where construction work is done.
The available information does not specify when water might be released, how much water is expected, or what steps are being taken to secure the supply. It also does not provide a timetable for putting the completed network into operation. The reported facts establish the immediate constraint: the infrastructure is largely in place, but the water required to use it has not reached the canals.
Project capacity awaits water supply
The third phase’s stated goal is to provide irrigation across 5,000 hectares through the main canal and its branch network. That figure describes the area the structures are capable of serving; it does not mean that irrigation is currently being delivered. With the main canal built from Brahmadev to Phuleli and most branches complete, water availability is the condition separating construction progress from actual irrigation.
For now, the project’s physical assets stand ready while the system remains dry. The next practical milestone is not another reported increase in canal construction, but the arrival of water from Tanakpur. Until a release is made and water reaches the network, the 5,000-hectare capacity and the investment of around 10 billion rupees will remain tied to infrastructure that cannot yet provide irrigation.
