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DERA GHAZI KHAN, Dec 19: Chief Minister Perviz Elahi says his government is committed to the development of southern Punjab. He was addressing a big gathering, also comprising parliamentarians and nazims and naib nazims and PML leaders, at Taunsa on Monday on the launch of Taunsa barrage rehabilitation and modernization project.
Terming Dec 19 a special day for the people of southern Punjab, Elahi said it was the biggest-ever irrigation project worth over Rs9 billion in the province.
He said a new system would be introduced to check irrigation water theft. The offence, he added, would be non-bailable with up to three-year jail.
The chief minister directed the irrigation department to complete the barrage rehabilitation in two years instead of three.
He thanked World Bank and the government of Japan for funding the project.
About other irrigation projects, he said work on Sadqia and Hakra canals had been launched while drip irrigation system had also been introduced in the Potohar region.
The chief minister announced Rs 470 million for the Abbasia Canal rehabilitation.
According to APP, Elahi said that Rs40 billion five-year irrigation sector reforms programme aimed at modernization of the irrigation system would be launched soon to give a boost to farm production.
On the completion of the Taunsa project, Elahi hoped, farmers of southern districts would earn more profit as more land would come under plough.
Earlier, Irrigation and Power Minister Aamir Sultan Cheema highlighted salient features of the project.
Punjab Assembly deputy speaker Sardar Shaukat Mazari, Finance Minister Hussnain Dreshak, MNAs, MPAs, district nazims and notable of Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur districts were also present on the occasion.
BARRAGE: Built in 1958, Taunsa is the oldest headworks of southern Punjab. However, due to its design and age, defects had soon begun to surface and it could not function according to its capacity.
The problems regarding the barrage were identified in a report in 1963 but the former government paid no attention to it.
The implementation of this project would not only avert the risk of the collapse but would also ensure adequate and uninterrupted supply of irrigation water to the farmers of DG Khan, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur districts.
Irrigation water is supplied from Taunsa barrage to Muzaffargah and DG Khan canals, which irrigate 838000 acres and 950000 acres of land, respectively. It also feeds Taunsa-Punjnad Link Canal.
The main civil works of the project are; a “4300 feet long subsidiary weir located 900 feet downstream of the existing barrage; repair of the barrage floor; construction of silt excluder in right undersluice for sediment mitigation measures for the DG Khan canal; and installation of a safety monitoring system.”
Mechanical and electrical works include replacement of four gates of right side under sluices; increasing height and strengthening of 32 gates in the right side of the weir; electrification of four gates of under sluices and 32 gates of the weir on the right side; and installation and commissioning of remote control system for all the 65 gates.
A period of three years was fixed for execution of the project but the chief minister directed that it should be completed within two years.
