Latest reports from Mekran confirm that construction of the Mirani Dam has been started at village Mirani site, 30 miles west of Turbat town in Mekran division.The survey and field investigations have so far been completed successfully and the work on engineering design is in its last stage.
The construction of a metallic road from Turbat to Mirani Dam site and residences of staff and other offices is also in progress. While the construction activity would gain its full momentum in the second half of this year, the work on the main dam and spillway is likely to commence shortly.
The dam is the third mega project after Gwadar port and Mekran coastal highway launched under the military government in Mekran during last three years. The project is bound to play a vital role in socio-economic uplift of local people generating large job opportunities for the local people and developing agriculture and livestock in the project’s command area.
The project is vitally linked to Gwadar deep-sea project, as it could spare around 300 cusecs of water for the future port city of Gwadar. The water from Mirani reservoir would meet the drinking, commercial and industrial needs and requirements of Gwadar port, its fish harbour and the future commercial and industrial estates to be established in Gwadar.
It is worth mentioning that no foreign funding is involved in the construction of the dam. This project is fully funded by the government of Pakistan. The total cost of the project has been estimated at Rs5,861 million and it will be completed by June 30, 2006. Pakistan has so far released Rs1,200 million for this project.
About 7,668 acres have been acquired for main dam, while 457 acres of land is being acquired for the irrigation system. Already, Rs140 million have been deposited for land acquisition with the government of Balochistan and compensation amounting to Rs47.910 million would be paid to landowners.
The project got politicized and was made controversial in the past. Hence, it could not be executed in mid-1980s when the Balochistan government prepared its feasibility study and sent it to the federal government for approval. There was an offer from a Soviet company to build the dam. Russians had agreed to provide soft loan and technical assistance to the Pakistan government.
It was the cold war period, hence Russian interest in constructing the Mirani dam project was suspect and interpreted by official circles in Islamabad as an attempt to establish its presence in Mekran. The construction of the proposed dam was opposed tooth and nail by the economic planners and managers in Islamabad and the project was put in cold storage labelling it as a communist project.
If the apprehensions of Islamabad about the Soviet intentions in Makran were genuine then why the Mirani dam project was not launched after the end of the cold war following the disintegration of the Soviet Union so that the dam could be a symbol of Pakistan-Russia friendship like the Pakistan Steel Mill.
This is how vested interests did override the national interests and a simple issue of water resource development was made an issue of cold war. This was not something new; many development projects were either closed down or not allowed to run smoothly in the province. Politics, intrigues, vested interests,have harmed the development process of this most backward province.It was because of such reasons that the two textile mills at Bolan and Uthal, established with the help of Iran were abruptly closed down when they had reached the production stage.
Saindak-copper and gold project also met the same fate and it was too abruptly closed down in 1996.It has been revived now.
According to an estimate, the Mirani dam would have the capacity to irrigate 100,000 areas of land in the entire Dasht plains recharging the dead Karezat in the upstream. The dam is being constructed across Dasht River. The project is located about 380 miles north-east of Quetta. It has central Mekran range in the north and is located at the confluence of two rivers i.e. Kech and Nihang. The dam would have a reservoir live storage capacity of about 152,000 acre feet. The irrigation supplies would be drawn from the reservoir through irrigation tunnel having the capacity of 377 cusecs. This water would be distributed to 20,000 acres of land on the right bank and 12,400 acres of land on the left bank of the Dasht River.
