In the Tida Section near Madras the surface width of the canal is 60 feet, and there is a minimum depth of 4½ feet. The tonnage of the boats plying on the Buckingham Canal was, in 1882, registered at 10,215 tons, and the receipts, consisting of licence fees and tolls, amounted to 12,000l., showing an increase of 1000l. over the previous year. In the fresh-water reaches, the width varies from 120 to 60 feet, with an average depth of 6 feet, and a current varying from ½ to 1¼ mile per hour. Every variety of boat is to be found on this canal, ranging from 3 to 80 tons.
In the Delta canals there is a large number of passenger boats, built on improved English models, but the majority of the craft are built on native lines, clumsy in appearance, but good cargo carriers notwithstanding, and almost all are decked. The haulage is almost entirely carried on by men; no cattle are used. On the Godavery and Kistna, small steamers have run in connection with the Government works, but, practically, no steam towing, though practised on the river itself, has as yet been used on the canals.
The cost of traction cannot be accurately stated; but, as far as General Rundall could make out from independent inquiries, the cost of working native boats is about one-eighth of a penny per ton-mile; the charge varies with the demand and the description of cargo.
The carriage of material for the Government Works used to be contracted for at three-eighths of a penny per ton mile, and the charge made to native merchants was probably about the same; but to European traders it was higher.
There is no other purely navigation canal in the Madras Presidency, but there is a considerable boat traffic carried on in the lagoons on the western coast.
The Godavery Delta is composed of three principal tracts. A main canal is led off from the river to each tract, and from it are thrown off several main branches, most of which are fitted with locks.
The lines which skirt the edge of the Delta are carried with a very small slope, and therefore require no locks, except at the terminus, where, on one side (the right bank), the canal is connected with a similar line led from the Kistna, and on the left bank, at a distance of 30 miles, it is connected with the port of Cocanada by a short junction canal, in which are built the locks necessary to overcome the difference of level, about 30 feet above the sea. All the main lines are dropped into the tidal reaches of the respective branches of the Godavery, and are in this manner connected with one another.
The total length of navigable canals, exclusive of the tidal portions of the river, and the various salt-water creeks permeating the lower part of the Delta, extends for between 458 and 502 miles.
The canals are open to any carriers. Tolls are not levied generally, but only on unlicensed boats, as the water rates derived from irrigation yield a large return on the capital expenditure.
The majority of boats pay the small registration fee which is exacted in preference to tolls.