Old Anicut Barrage Built by Britishers in 1868 on Sone to provide irrigation to the old Shahabad areas, an excellent annicut, which answered to the water needs of this area today, lies in ruins. The annicut barrage near Dehri-On-Sone and its canal system was the first of its kind successful structure made on any river in the world providing irrigation to huge areas in old Shahabad. The engineering marvel of those times has attracted researchers and experts from all over the world. American engineers are recorded as having visited the site and copied its technique to bring about green revolution in their own country in the 19th century. British military engineer H. Dickens, posted in Shahabad in 1855, conceived the idea of making a canal system on Sone for irrigation purposes to bring prosperity to this region, known for countless rebellion which were a challenge to law and order in the time of the empire. He submitted a detailed project report to the British government in 1860 as a means to channel people into productive work and wean them away from rebellion. A company ‘East India Irrigation and Canal Company Limited’ was founded in 1867 to construct and monitor the irrigation and transportation system. The construction work started in 1868 and the 14- feet high and 12469 feet (about 3 mile) long mega stone structure along with 218 mile long network of canals were completed at the whopping cost Rs.68 crore in 1873. The engineers had to face a big problem in overcoming 180 feet slope downwards to river Ganga at Ara and Buxer. They solved it by small sluice gates to maintain water level at several places. However, the annicut, which worked wonders for the regions irrigation potential for more 190 years, become defunct for want of sufficient water due to heavy slit deposited in its basin after construction of bansagar and rihand dams on the Sone. The barrage was further resigned to history after the construction of the Indrapuri barrage at a distance of 7 kms upstream to meet the irrigation needs in 1967. However, the annicut’s canal system still exists and is even now the lifeline for farmers in nine districts, which has been the historians and architects of different countries. Earlier, the British Government used to make canals for water transportation in its colonies but this one was modeled on irrigation canal sin ancient India as found in excavations at Indus Valley civilization. The barrage helped stream irrigation water to Shahabad and tamed the rebellions on 1857, be claims.