The Indira Gandhi Canal (originally, Rajasthan Canal) is the longest canal in India. It starts at the Harike Barrage near Harike, a few kilometers downriver from the confluence of the Satluj and Beas rivers in Punjab state, and ends in irrigation facilities in the Thar Desert in the northwest of Rajasthan state. Previously known as the Rajasthan Canal, it was renamed the Indira Gandhi Canal on 2 November 1984 following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The canal consists of the Rajasthan feeder canal with the first in Punjab and Haryana state and a further in Rajasthan. This is followed by the of the Rajasthan main canal, which is entirely within Rajasthan. The canal enters Haryana from Punjab near Lohgarh and runs through the western part of the Sirsa district before entering Rajasthan near Kharakhera village in the Tibbi tehsil of the Hanumangarh district. It traverses seven districts of Rajasthan: Barmer, Bikaner, Churu, Hanumangarh, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, and Sriganganagar. The main canal is long, which is 1458 RD (reduced distance). From 1458 RD, a long branch starts, known as the Sagar Mal Gopa Branch or the SMGS. From the end point of SMGS, another 92-kilometer-long sub-branch starts, the last of the Baba Ramdev sub-branch. It ends near Gunjangarh village in Jaisalmer district. Design and construction The idea of bringing the waters from the Himalayan Rivers flowing through Punjab and into Pakistan was conceived by hydraulic engineer Kanwar Sain in the late 1940s. Sain estimated that of desert land in Bikaner and the northwest corner of Jaisalmer could be irrigated by the stored waters of Punjab rivers. In 1960, the Indus Water Treaty was signed between India and Pakistan, which gave India the right to use the water from three rivers: the Satluj, Beas and Ravi. The proposed Rajasthan Canal envisioned use of of water. The initial plan was to build the canal in two stages. Stage I consisted of a feeder canal from Harike barrage, Firozpur, Punjab to Masitawali (Hanumangarh) with the main canal of from Masitawali (Hanumangarh) to Pugal, (Bikaner) in Rajasthan. Stage I also included constructing a distributary canal system of about in length. Stage II involved constructing a long main canal from Pugal (Bikaner) to Mohangarh (Jaisalmer) along with a distributary canal network of . The main canal was planned to be wide at the top and wide at the bottom with a water depth of .