Sri Ganganagar district

History

Named after Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner, Sri Ganganagar district was part of Bikaner state. This was a mostly uninhabited region. The history of this district is testimony to the vision and efforts of Maharaja Ganga Singh, who visualised and built the Gang Canal after the Indian famine of 1899–1900. The waters of the Sutlej River were brought into the region through the 89-mile long Gang Canal in 1927, turning this region into a breadbasket of Rajasthan.

Location and area

Sri Ganganagar District is located between Latitude 28.4 to 30.6 and Longitude 72.2 to 75.3 The total area of Sri Ganganagar is 11,154.66 km² or 1,115,466 hectares. It is surrounded on the east by Hanumangarh District, (Hanumangarh district was carved out of it on July 12, 1994) on the south by Bikaner District, and on the west by Bahawalnagar district of the Pakistani Punjab and on the north by the Punjab.

Ganganagar tehsils

There are following nine tehsils in Ganganagar district.

1. Sri Ganganagar
2. Sri Karanpur, headquarters in the town of Karanpur
3. Sadulshahar
4. Padampur
5. Raisinghnagar
6. Suratgarh
7. Anoopgarh
8. Shri Vijaynagar
9. Gharsana

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Sri Ganganagar district has a population of 1,969,520, roughly equal to the nation of Slovenia or the US state of New Mexico. This gives it a ranking of 235th in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of 179 inhabitants per square kilometre (460/sq mi) . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 10.06%. Ganganagar has a sex ratio of 887 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 70.25%.

Media

The district has editions of state level newspapers from Jaipur, which are re-published from Ganganagar and Raisinghnagar. The newspaper Seema Sandesh is published from Ganganagar in Hindi.

"Air Suratgarh", a radio station, broadcasts programmes in Hindi, Rajasthani and Punjabi languages. It was commissioned in 1981 and broadcasts on the 918 kHz frequency.