3. What is Bari Doab?
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Answer:
Doab (English: /ˈdoʊɑːb/) is a term used in South Asia for the tract of land lying between two confluent rivers. It is similar to an interfluve.
A perennial irrigation canal in the Punjab, taking off from the left bank of the Ravi, and watering the Districts of Gurdaspur, Amritsar, and Lahore in the Bari Doab or tract of country between the Beas and Ravi. The present undertaking originated in a project for the improvement of an older work, the Hasli canal, constructed about the year 1633 by All Mardan Khan, the famous engineer of the emperor Shah Jahan. After the occupation of Lahore in 1846, Major Napier (afterwards Lord Napier of Magdala) turned his attention at once to this project, and set on foot the necessary surveys. The progress of the work was interrupted by the outbreak of war. After annexation the work was pressed on, because the immediate construction of the canal was regarded as almost a matter of political necessity to provide employment for the disbanded Sikh soldiers, who, having their homes in the centre of the tract, would otherwise have had little encouragement to turn to agriculture. The alignment of the Hasli canal proved on examination to be so defective that the ofificers in charge decided upon the adoption of an entirely independent line, parts only of the original channel being utilized as distributaries. Irrigation began in 1 860-1, but the present permanent weir and other regulating head-works were not completed till after 1875.