LAHORE, Nov 9: The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) plans to “fine-tune” the Rs284 million telemetry system during the forthcoming annual canal closure in the Punjab.

Whereas Wapda claims that the system has been calibrated and only needs to be fine-tuned, the Punjab Irrigation Department maintains that the system is yet to be calibrated properly.

According to the department, the calibration process of linking the actual releases with censors installed on gates of every barrage, had not been completed when the system was commissioned last May, some 13 months ahead of schedule. Wapda was in a hurry to beat the deadline and hand the system over to the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) as early as possible.

The Wapda decision to make the system fully functional came on a written request of the Punjab Irrigation Department. The department has asked it to complete the work from Dec 26 to Jan 31, when canals will be closed as per irrigation plan of the province.

Though the authority maintains that the system is working fine, it has agreed to what it calls fine tuning of the system to remove the provincial authorities’ doubts about the data being transmitted by it.

Wapda is in touch with Irsa and will complete calibration of the system, says an official of the authority. The Punjab Irrigation Department compares telemetry data with what it has been receiving through manual readings. It has forgotten that the manually-operated system created problems and the scientific telemetry system was installed to remove those problems, he said.

The authority has collected and verified telemetry data and found that it is dependable. But even then, if there are doubts in the mind of someone in the province, Wapda has no objection to fine-tuning the system in the presence of provincial representatives, he said. The authority, in collaboration with Irsa, is chalking out a plan to recheck the calibration barrage by barrage and canal by canal, he claimed.

The irrigation authorities in the Punjab, however, hold an entirely different view of the working of telemetry system. According to them, the system has not been working properly because it is not calibrated. It was commissioned in haste and the calibration process skipped. According to them, the calibration process takes almost a year because the system has to be scrupulously checked in every season — high flood, low water supply and drought. Only after getting time-tested results, the system can be called fully operational. But, it has not been the case.

It may be mentioned here that the telemetry system became a bone of contention among the Indus River System Authority, Wapda and the Punjab Irrigation Department soon after its commissioning last May.

The Irsa, which was supposed to run it as a distributor of national water, refused to take it over on the plea that neither the system was calibrated nor was there manpower available to run it. The Punjab refused to use the data, saying that it was not dependable because of poor calibration. Since then, all three bodies have been hurling accusations at one another.

Originally, Wapda commissioned the system at 19 out of 23 sites last May. It was not able to install the system at four sites in Balochistan in May because of law and order problems, but it completed the project in September.