ISLAMABAD, Feb 7: The government on Wednesday decided to increase heights of Munda and Kurram Tangi dams by about eight feet and 30 feet, respectively, to meet demands of local people and bring maximum land under cultivation.

The decision was taken at a meeting held here under Minister for Water and Power Liaqat Ali Jatoi. Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Salim Saifullah, Lakki Marwat District Nazim Hamyun Saifullah, water and power secretary, additional chief secretary and secretary for irrigation and power, NWFP, and officials of Wapda and the Frontier Works Organisation attended the meeting.

“The issue of height of the two mega projects, i.e. Kurram Tangi dam and Munda dam, has been resolved,” an official statement said. The decision was taken unanimously by all stakeholders, it added.

Wapda was directed to redesign the structure of the Kurram Tangi dam within four months in accordance with the increased capacity of water storages of 1.2 million acre feet.

Sources said the height of the Munda dam had originally been estimated at 703 feet under a feasibility study conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. However, Wapda authorities and private sector sponsors of the project had reduced its height to 695 feet, which was sufficient to meet electricity generation requirements.

The meeting on Wednesday, however, decided on demands of local people to fix Munda dam’s height at 703 feet. Similarly, it decided to enhance the height of the Kurram Tangi dam from 295 feet to 325-340 feet which would provide a storage of about 1.2 million acre feet of water, instead of 0.91 MAF originally envisaged by Wapda. This additional storage capacity would bring about 0.362 million acres of land under cultivation and push up the cost of the project by about Rs500 million to Rs17.5 billion, the sources said.