SUKKUR: High officials of the World Bank and UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation and Sindh irrigation department inspected the ongoing rehabilitation and modernisation work at Guddu Barrage on Thursday.

The WB mission led by Francois Onimus, Ms Thiruni Liyanaga, Co-task Team Leader Shafiq Hussain, FAO representative Ahmed Junaid Memon, project director of WB-funded Sindh Barrages Improvement Project (SBIP) of the irrigation department, Ghulam Mohiuddin Mughal, deputy project director Sajid Hussain Bhutto and other officials concerned visited the upstream right bank at the barrage.

Mughal told the mission that 500 kv and 132 kv transmission lines would be lifted up by two to four feet over the right guide bank so as to any unwanted incident. The right guide banks would also be raised by two to four feet, he said.

He said that 25 gates of head regulators of three canals emerging from the barrage had been replaced, six gates of the barrage had also been changed and work was in progress to replace four more gates, he said, adding 55 other gates would also be replaced.

The chief resident engineer Mr Johnson and Ms Kerry briefed the officials on the barrage work.

Technical Officer SBIP Imran Aziz Tunio informed the guests that the replacement of the gates and the operating system at the barrage would help in the management and just distribution of water.

The director (procurement) of SBIP, Abdul Razaq Memon, said the rehabilitation of Guddu Barrage started with initial estimation of Rs18 billion. For the rehabilitation of banks, people who had to be displaced from the banks were compensated through the WB-funded project, said Tariq Ursai, deputy director (resettlement) of SBIP.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2022