RAS question
Farakka Barrage is built across the Ganga River. What is its PRIMARY purpose?
Correct answer: (B) Diverting Ganga water to the Hooghly to flush silt and maintain navigability of Kolkata Port.
Farakka Barrage was built primarily to divert Ganga water through the feeder canal into the Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system, helping flush silt and preserve the navigability of Kolkata Port.
Explanation
Farakka Barrage is not primarily a power, drinking-water or flood-control project. The official Farakka Barrage Project site says the project complex includes the barrage, feeder canal, navigation lock and related structures, and that it was commissioned in May 1975. Its head regulator diverts Ganga water into the feeder canal to augment flow in the Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system; the feeder canal carries that discharge mainly for the preservation of Kolkata Port. The barrage was meant to send Ganga water towards the Hooghly so that silt could be flushed out and the port's navigability maintained. The same diversion also explains why Farakka became a long-running India-Bangladesh water-sharing issue.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Hydroelectric generation is not the stated primary role; the official description centres on diversion through the feeder canal into the Bhagirathi-Hooghly system for preserving Kolkata Port.
- (C) The project diverts Ganga water towards the Bhagirathi-Hooghly system, and this diversion made Farakka a water-sharing dispute with Bangladesh rather than a drinking-water supply scheme for Bangladesh.
- (D) Flood control is not the primary design purpose given here; Farakka's purpose was diversion for silt flushing and port navigability, while it has even been blamed for worsening upstream floods.
Concept
This tests river-engineering and inland-waterway infrastructure in Indian geography. RAS asks such projects because one structure can link physical geography, ports, navigation and interstate or international water politics.