KARACHI, April 3: Sindh Governor, Mohammedmian Soomro, has expressed satisfaction over the pace of work in preparation of the master plan for the installation of the Indus Basin Irrigation Telemetry System.

According to a Governor’s House spokesman, Wapda officials have apprised Mr Soomro in this respect and that the installation of Ibits is aimed at ensuring equitable distribution of water, monitoring flow and statistics and timely availability of satellite photographs.

Under the directives of President General Pervez Musharraf, a team of Wapda officials have started installing two available telemetry stations meant for Flood Telemetry Network at Tounsa and Chashma barrages. Resultantly, installation at Chashma Barrage is complete and signals are being received, while work is in progress at Tounsa Barrage and expected to be completed by April 15.

They further informed that joint teams consisting of officials of Irrigation Departments of Sindh and Punjab, executive engineers of Wapda have been deployed at Chashma, Taunsa and Lahore, that would regularly monitor the flow of water at different canals.

According to details, a special meeting of the Ecnec is being convened to approve PC1 with an estimated cost of Rs450 million, in respect of installation of Central Telemetry Network, for which WAPDA has allocated Rs5 million as bridge finance.

The governor thanked President Musharraf on behalf of the Government of Sindh in this respect, and lauded the efforts of the Chief Executive Secretariat and Wapda officials.

He hoped that Sindh would prosper through the revival of long-awaited projects meant to uplift the living standards of the people.

Mr Soomro disclosed that President Pervez Musharraf has announced Rs10 million for renovation of the irrigation system in Sindh and a special team of experts has been constituted.

—PPI