Rs142bn uplift plans okayed: Funds for Thal canal withheld
By Ihtashamul Haque
ISLAMABAD, Oct 8: The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) of the Planning Commission approved on Wednesday 40 development projects worth Rs142 billion, but withheld for the time being Rs30.6 billion for the greater Thal canal project due to the opposition by the Sindh government.
Official sources told Dawn that the CDWP meeting, presided over by Planning Commission Secretary Dr Javed Sadiq Malik, instructed the officials concerned to complete afresh the drawings and designing of the Thal canal project so that it could be approved in the next meeting.
Most of the projects approved by the CDWP were foreign funded and would be completed in three to five years. The government has allocated substantial funding for these projects under the public sector development programme (PSDP) for 2003-04.
Sources said despite Wapda authorities’ insistence that the Thal canal project should be given an early approval as the authority had already spent Rs300 million on it, the Planning Commission maintained that it would be better if the project was taken up after all the objections raised by the Sindh government as well as independent experts had been removed.
The project was announced by President Pervez Musharraf on August 30, 2001, but it has to be formally cleared first by the CWDP and then by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec).
The primary objective of the project is to irrigate 1.53 million acres feet in district Bhakkar, Layyah, Khushab and Jhang from the surplus flood water of river Indus for 60-90 days during the Kharif season, while during the Rabi season irrigation through tubewell system would continue.
The total length of the system is 2,360km, including the main canal and distributaries.
The national programme for family planning and primary health care (lady health workers programme) is one of the major projects which has been approved by the CDWP at a cost of Rs22.4 billion.
Revamping/ rehabilitation of irrigation and drainage systems in Sindh was the another project approved by the CDWP which would be completed at a cost of Rs16.9 billion. The project is located in the perennial and non-perennial areas in the canal command of Guddu, Sukkur and Kotri barrages.
The project also includes construction of small drainage schemes in Jacobabad district, construction of check dams and small dams in the Khirthar and Kohistan hill ranges.
The meeting also cleared the urban water supply scheme project (phase-IV) for Mirpurkhas, which will cost Rs401 million.
Similarly, the meeting approved the Rs20 billion irrigation system rehabilitation project for Punjab. The project has been taken up as the irrigation system in the province is deteriorating because of lack of maintenance and clogging of irrigation channels and drains with sediment and debris.
The meeting also given its nod to the lining of irrigation channels (distributaries and minors in Punjab project), which would be completed at a cost of Rs31.2 billion. The province has 24 canal systems which are administered through six irrigation zones with headquarters at Lahore, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan.
Another massive project for the rehabilitation and modernization of barrages in Punjab has been approved by the meeting. The project would be completed at a cost of Rs29 billion. Under the project repair work would be undertaken on eight barrages, including Jinnah, Taunsa, Khanki, Balloki, Sulemanki, Islam, Trimmu and Punjnad.
The construction of a 247km-long Kalat-Quetta-Chaman section of the National Highway (N-25) was also approved by the meeting, which would be completed at a cost of Rs6.6 billion.
The meeting also gave an approval to a project for extension of the Pat Feeder canal for utilization of Indus water in Balochistan at a cost of Rs2.3 billion.
