Beas

River rising in Himachal Pradesh, India, flowing through Punjab state as an upper tributary of the Sutlej, which in turn joins the Indus. It is one of the five rivers that give the Punjab its name. The ancient Hyphasis, it marked the limit of the invasion of India by Alexander the Great.

The Beas forms part of a huge irrigation schemes on the Punjab plains of Pakistan and India. The dam at Pong irrigates up to 2.1 million ha/5 million acres and generates 240,000 kW. Near Mandi, tunnels take the water to the Sutlej and can generate 660,000 kW and irrigate 320,000 ha/787,000 acres, while waters of both rivers are fed into the Rajasthan Canal to irrigate 1.1 million ha/2.7 million acres in the Thar Desert, mainly for wheat and cotton crops.