The barrage was completed in 1962 at a cost of 474.8 million rupees and inaugurated by Field Marshal Ayub Khan in 1962.

Under the project rehabilitation and modernization of Guddu Barrage to be carried out in first phase with estimated cost of Rs.

SIDA spokesman informed that primary function of the Guddu Barrage was to provide irrigation water to over one million hectares of agricultural lands in the Jacobabad, Larkana, Sukkur and the Naseerabad districts, by feeding the Ghotki Feeder and Rainee canals on the left (east) side and the Begari Sindh (BS) Feeder and Desert Pat Feeder canals on the right (west) side.

The rehabilitation work will eliminate possible sources of failure and potentially give the structure another 50 years of life.

This project will also finance the independent Panel of Experts, who will review, monitor, evaluate, and help guide the rehabilitation process with regards to the safety of the barrage.

The primary beneficiaries include over 2.6 million people, across three million acres of irrigated land in Kashmore, Ghotki, Jacobabad, Sukkur, and Shikarpur districts of Sindh, and Nasirabad and Jafarabad districts of Balochistan, who will receive reliable supply of water while local communities in flood-vulnerable areas who will benefit from improvement in flood management and reduction in risks of embankment breaches; since the capacity of the barrage to pass flood waters will improve as well.