ISLAMABAD, July 22: The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) will meet on July 30 to approve a Rs13 billion project for revamping and rehabilitation of irrigation and drainage system in Sindh.

The planning commission and central development working party (CDWP) have already cleared the project with a foreign exchange component of Rs542 million, according to a summary submitted to the Ecnec.

The project, submitted to the Ecnec by water and power ministry, is aimed at improving the operational efficiency by ensuring the safety of the canal system and delivering due share of water to the farmers at the tail reaches of the canals with adequate drainage cover.

The project envisaged strengthening of 8,082 kilometre (2,967 million cubic feet earthwork) of canal and drain banks, silt clearance of 3,685-km, stone pitching of canal bank 380-km, remodelling of 241 regulators, rehabilitation of 201 bridges, repair and extension of 11,725 modules, revamping of 1493 SCARP tubewells, re-boring of 103 and replacement of 211 transformers and resectioning of 568-km surface drains.

The entire cost of the project will be funded by the federal government which will be completed by June 2007.

The project is part of a 10-year perspective development plan (2001-11) and an amount of Rs10 billion has been allocated to the project in that plan.

The cabinet had also decided that PC-1 part-II of lining of channels costing Rs17 billion should be forwarded to the federal ministry of water and power for clearance by central development working party and Ecnec.

As regards the proper implementation of the project, the provincial cabinet approved the project steering committee to be led by the provincial irrigation minister and an implementation unit led by former secretary irrigation.

The terms of reference (TOR) of the committee included taking decisions on all technical, financial, contractual and management issues, and propose measures for smooth running of the project on a fast track basis.

The cultivable command area of Sindh is about 5.38 million hectares. Fourteen irrigation canals off-take from three barrages located on the Indus river — at Guddu, Sukkur and Kotri — having a length of 2083-km with peak discharge of 150,000 cusecs.

The total length of channels off-taking from these canals is 18,277-km. Irrigation and drainage systems of Sindh are deteriorating because of accumulated deferred maintenance which results in frequent breaching of canal banks and clogging of irrigation channels and drains with sediment and debris.