RAWALPINDI: The Khanpur Dam Water Supply project phase-III worth Rs700 million for supplying water to the garrison city will not be completed this year due to a shortage of funds.

Work on the phase-III of the project began in 2010 and was supposed to be completed by December 2011 but was delayed due to slow release of funds by the federal government.

A senior official of Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) told Dawn that the civic body requested the federal government to release Rs200 million to complete the project.

He said the federal government allocated Rs97 million for the project in the fiscal year 2014-15 under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) but the funds had not been released yet.

He said that the RCB sent a proposal to federal government through its parent department Ministry of Defence to increase the amount allocated so the project could be completed to resolve the acute water shortage in the garrison city.

“The Khanpur Dam is full of water but it is of no use to the civic body as the water needs of the Rawalpindi cantonment would not be fulfilled this year either,” he said.

Work on phase-III of Khanpur Dam delayed due to slow release of funds by federal government

He said that the civic body was already rationing water in cantonment areas and more than 100 people applied for the disconnection of water supply in various areas as water was not being supplied to them.

The Khanpur Dam water supply launched in 2001 and two phases amounting to Rs690 million had been completed in 2005 to supply 9 million gallon of water daily (MGD) to the garrison city.

On April 8, 2006, the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved the project. However, the work on phase-III of the project started in December 2010 and included laying of 17 kilometer long water transmission line in the remaining 40 percent cantonment area and construction of water reservoirs.

“At present, 10 kilometer water supply line has been laid but water connections were not given to the people as supply will be opened once all the lines are laid,” said another senior official of the RCB.

The official said that three overhead and three underground water tanks have been completed with a storage capacity of 200,000 gallons of water each. However, he said that six water tanks still under construction.

The official said that remaining work would be completed after receiving funds. He said that the construction cost would increase if the government released the funds in the next fiscal year.

“On the completion of Phase-III, the entire area of Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonment will get 15 MGD instead of 9 MGD,” he said and added that at present 6 MGD water extracted from tube wells which was not enough to supply water to entire civilian population.

When contacted, RCB Cantonment Executive Officer Fahim Zafar Khan said that the RCB sought financial help from federal government to complete the project by end of this year.

He said that after the completion of the project, the RCB would get additional water from Khanpur Dam as per the agreement.

Published in Dawn March 16th , 2015

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