It will benefit some 25-30 lakh farmers across nine eastern UP districts namely, Bahraich, Gonda, Basti, Shravasti, Balrampur, SantKabir Nagar, Siddharthnagar, Gorakhpur and Maharajganj.
Canal will facilitate irrigation of 14.04 lakh hectares of land, as well as reduce the risk of floods in several flood-prone areas of the region. The irrigated area under the project will be 4.04 lakh hectares. Under this project, five rivers namely Ghagra, Rapti, Banganga, Saryu and Rohini, have been connected.
The Saryu River originates at a ridge south of Nanda Kot Mountain in Bageshwar district of the Uttarakhand. It flows through Kapkot, Seraghant and Bageshwar, towns and finally discharging into the Sharda River at Pancheshwar, which is located at India—Nepal border. It then flows into Ghaghara River in Sitapur District of Uttar Pradesh. Lower Ghaghara is also known as Saryu River, especially when it flows through the city of Ayodhya. The river has been mentioned multiple times in the ancient Indian epic called Ramayana.
