Irrigation projects in India are classified into three categories – major, medium and minor according to the area cultivated, the classification criteria are as follows:

1. Major irrigation projects: This type of project consists of huge surface water, storage reservoirs and flow diversion structures. The area envisaged to be covered under irrigation is of the order over 10000 hectares.

2. Medium irrigation projects: These are also surface water projects but with medium size storage and diversion structures with the area under irrigation between 10000 hectares and 2000 hectare

3. Minor irrigation projects: The area proposed under irrigation for these schemes is below 2000 Ha and the source of water is either ground water or from wells or tube wells or surface water lifted by pumps or by gravity flow from tanks. It could also be irrigated from through water from tanks.