DERA MURAD JAMALI: The first phase of the Kachhi canal has been completed while a survey to start the work on second and third phases was underway.

This was claimed by Kachhi Canal Project Engineer Syed Khalid Shah during a briefing to Balochistan Minister for Irrigation Muhammad Khan Lehri, who visited the canal along with Irrigation Secretary Abdul Fatah Bhangar and other officials.

In the first phase, the work on 363km has been completed, Mr Shah said, adding in the second phase, work on another 58km stretch would be completed. In the third phase, the remaining 44km portion of the canal would be built. As soon as the survey was completed, the work on second and third phases would be initiated, the minister was told.

Mr Lehri said with the completion of the first phase of the canal, over one lac acres of agricultural land would be brought under cultivation.

“It was a long-standing demand of the people of Nasirabad division which was fulfilled today,” Mr Lehri said, adding with the canal, a new era of development and prosperity would begin in Nasirabad, Jhal Magsi and Kachhi districts.

The farmers in Nasirabad would get water for their crops while the issue of clean drinking water for the locals would also be resolved.

He praised the efforts of Wapda and said it played an important role in completion of the first phase of the canal.

The work on the Kachhi canal project was set to be inaugurated in 2002 by the then president retired general Pervez Musharraf.

However, the project suffered gross cost overruns and an inordinate delay of almost two decades. Later, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi inaugurated the 300km project in 2017.

Published in Dawn, January 23th, 2023