ISLAMABAD: The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) on Thursday awarded three contracts of Rs98.5 billion for construction of Phase-I of Greater Karachi Water Supply Scheme — also known as K-IV — to supply 260 million gallons per day (MGD) of water to Karachi.

The contract signing ceremony between Wapda and three contractors was witnessed by Minister for Water Resources Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, acting Wapda chairman Naveed Asghar Chaudhry and Wapda members for water and power Javed Latif and Jamil Akhtar and representatives of consultants and the construction firms.

Two contracts worth Rs81.116bn were awarded to a consortium comprising M/s China Harbour Engineering Company Limited and AL-Fajr International while the third contract of Rs17.4bn was awarded to Descon Engineering.

A Wapda general manager explained that Phase-I of the K-IV project would be constructed in district Thatta and Karachi’s districts Malir and West with approved estimated cost of Rs126.5bn to supply 260 MGD of water to Karachi.

First phase work is scheduled to be completed in Oct 2023

The K-IV first phase will be constructed through eight packages of which two contracts had already been awarded while three contracts were awarded on Thursday.

Contracts for two remaining packages will be awarded within the next 10 days. Two contractors have already been mobilised to the site and construction of the project will commence in the first week of July.

The phase-I of the K-IV is scheduled to be completed in October 2023.

Under the first contract signed on Thursday, 129.4-km-long “pressurised water transmission pipelines” would be laid and allied works would be carried out involving jointing of 84-inch and 52-inch pipelines.

The Rs52.27bn worth of contract involves completion time of 17 months. Contract was signed by representatives of M/s China Harbour Engineering Company Limited and M/s AL-Fajr International (the contractors) and project director K-IV of Wapda.

The second package worth Rs28.846bn was awarded to the same consortium.

The length of the pipeline of this package is about 80 kilometres and involved pipelines of 84- and 64-inch diameters. The package has to be completed in 16 months.

The third package of Engineering Procurement & Construction (EPC) Turnkey Contract of Pumping Station 2 x 130 MGD (Civil, Electrical & Mechanical Works) was signed with Descon Engineering at a cost of Rs17.4bn.

This involves about two pumping stations of 130MGD each and 12 pumps of 32.5MGD each, including four for standby arrangement.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister Shah said the K-IV was a vital project for Karachi and would help address the issue of water supply to the cosmopolitan city and economic hub of Pakistan.

He expressed the hope that the project would be completed within the timeline to ensure its benefits to the people at the earliest.

Published in Dawn,June 10th, 2022