KARACHI, Dec 18: The caretaker Sindh cabinet has decided to take up the Thar power project issue with President Pervez Musharraf to expedite the decision on the upfront tariff issue to pave the way for the implementation of the project at the earliest.

This was stated by provincial Information Secretary Fasihuddin Khan. Briefing journalists after a cabinet meeting, which was presided over by caretaker Chief Minister Justice (retd) Abdul Qadir Halepota here on Tuesday, Mr Khan said that the Sindh government had already provided infrastructure in the Thar area, including construction of roads, fresh water supply, potable water supply and electricity to the local population.

The cabinet expressed satisfaction over the improving situation of the wheat flour crisis following the measures taken by the government for the availability of wheat to flour mills from government godowns. The cabinet expressed the need to continue the measures taken in this connection so that the flour availability situation could further improve to bring down its price to Rs16 per kg.

The cabinet was informed that a contract had been awarded to M/s Green Power Ltd for installing filter plants in every union council in the province. Under the contract, which was signed by the firm on Nov 5, 2007, the firm would install water filter plants in 1,005 out of 1,108 UCs of the province and would be responsible for their maintenance and operation for three years. Later, the TMOs would be made responsible for their operation and maintenance.

Regarding progress on the ongoing project of lining work in 33,000 watercourses, the cabinet was briefed that although the project was initiated 27 years ago, until 2004 lining work was carried out in only 6,197 watercourses.