QUETTA, Sept 29: The federal government has agreed to sponsor the construction of Naulang and Bolan reservoirs in Balochistan and will soon release Rs6.428 billion.

“An amount of Rs6 billion will be spent on the construction of the Naulang dam and Rs428 million on the Bolan dam,” said Balochistan Minister for Irrigation Maulana Attaullah while talking to APP on Friday.

He said proposals for the construction of the two dams had been submitted to the federal government in the first quarter of the previous year but they were rejected by the Ecnec as the proposals did not contain complete information on the volume of sedimentation.

“Due to this delay, the estimated cost of both the dams was almost doubled as the prices of construction material increased,” he said. Mr Attaullah said the provincial irrigation and power department would execute the projects.

“Each dam will have the capacity to store over fifty thousands acre feet of water, bringing over 80 thousands acres of barren land under cultivation,” he informed.

He said construction of the dams would not only make the people of the two districts self-sufficient in food and fruits, but also benefit people financially.

“The centre has launched projects worth billions of rupees, and their completion will bring agricultural revolution in the province,” he said, stressing the need for an improved farm-to-market road network to enable the farmers to smoothly transport their agriculture products to main markets.

“In the absence of a better farm-to-market road network, a majority of the agriculture products goes waste,” he noted.—APP