IoT-Enabled Digital Transformation of State Tubewell Irrigation Systems: A Case Study of an IoT-Based Pump Monitoring System

Abstract

The Tubewell East Zone, Ayodhya manages 9,107 government tubewells covering approximately 7.36 lakh hectares of agricultural land. Before this initiative, pump operations were managed manually with no real-time data, leading to frequent motor burn cases, high downtime and poor irrigation reliability. The system uses cloud-connected sensors with M2M SIM-based connectivity to track nine key parameters and generate pre-failure alerts. After deployment, total running hours increased from 1,37,868 to 1,84,637 hours, irrigation coverage grew from 5,945.08 hectares to 8,354.77 hectares and zero motor burn cases were recorded. The estimated economic benefit is approximately Rs. 1.25 lakh per tubewell per year. This study offers a replicable governance model for digital transformation of public irrigation infrastructure in developing economies.