RAWALPINDI, July 21: The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) has sought Rs300 million additional funds from federal government to complete Rs700 million phase-III of the Khanpur Dam Water Supply Project (KDWSP).

The sources told Dawn on Thursday that the RCB had written a letter to the federal government for the release of Rs450 million instead of Rs150 million that had been allocated for the project under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP 2011-12) because the cost of material had increased tremendously in the market and the civic body required more funds for the project.

The phase-III of the project funded by the federal government launched in December 2010 to construct water reservoirs and lay water supply lines in cantonment areas. Earlier, the two phases were completed in 2006 and the third phase was also supposed to be started in 2006 but it could not be started due to other priorities of the federal government.

Under the project, the RCB will lay 20,942 metre water supply lines in different areas of the cantonment. It will also construct 10 overhead water tanks at Afshan Colony, Burfkhana Chowk, Allama Iqbal Colony, Tipu Road, Dhoke Syedan, Aadra, Jhanda Chichi, Naseerabad, Adiala Road and Dhoke Kashmirian.

The sources said that the 15 per cent work of the project could be completed so far and the civic body required more funds to continue the work. They feared if the government didn’t release the required funds, the project would go slow.

They said that the government released Rs50 million so far and the total cost of the project was Rs700 million. They said that the government had asked the contractors to complete the project within two years and it could only be possible if the government provided required funds on time.

When contacted, RCB Cantonment Executive Officer Rana Manzoor Ahmed Khan said that the RCB had completed two water reservoirs at Aliabad and Adiala Road near 502 workshop. He said that the water supply lines had been laid along Peshawar Road, Misrial Road, Range Road and along the adjoining roads so far.

He said that the RCB had requested the federal government to release Rs450 million instead of Rs150 million allocated for the project. He said that the present allocation would not meet the requirements for this year as under the agreement with the contractors, the RCB would have to provide funds to the company on time to complete the project by 2012.

He said that it was an important project as it would double the water storage capacity of the area. “We are getting 15 million gallon water daily (MGD) from Khanpur Dam and through the tube wells and once the project is completed, the RCB would be able to get 20 MGD water,” he said.

He said that the 10 water reservoirs would make RCB able to provide uninterrupted supply to the people in the days of crisis. “We have bad experience last month when the Iesco cut off the electricity supply of Sungjani filtration plant and forced RCB to introduce water rationing,” he said and added if the RCB had the reservoirs, this situation would not occur again.