07 January 2004	Wednesday	14 Ziqa'ad 1424

RAWALPINDI, Jan 6: The government of Japan has not yet made any decision whether to fund the Daducha Dam project or not, Matsunaga, head of the economic and development section at the embassy of Japan, told Dawn here on Tuesday.

He said the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) itself could not fund any project as it was a project implementation agency. Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Official Development Assistance, through a specific mechanism, financed various projects here and handed those over to Jica for implementation, Mr Matsunaga said.

Meanwhile, sources privy to the project confirmed that the government had already contacted the Asian Development Bank for financing the project. Sources in the Rawalpindi Development Authority said the project director of the recently dissolved Project Management Unit (PMU), Brig Habibur Rehman (retired), had also sent a proposal to the Small Dams Organization (SDO) in this regard.

The proposal called for early construction of three proposed dams - Daducha Dam, Charah Dam on Soan River near Gorkpure Village, and K2 Dam - in the outskirts of the city.

The sources said the proposal of Mr Rehman, whose contract as PMU's PD was terminated on December 31, had come in the wake of a recently-conducted study by Nespak.