HYDERABAD, May 14: Despite reservations of people about the planned route of the Right Bank Outfall Drain-II (RBOD) the chief minister had ruled out possibility of any change in the plan and directed the authorities concerned go ahead with work on the project, said official sources on Monday.

According to the minutes of the meeting seen by Dawn the chief minister had communicated the directives to the irrigation department at a meeting held at the Chief Minister’s House a couple of days ago. Jamshoro District Nazim Malik Asad Sikandar had also attended the meeting.

The residents of Kotri who feared the project might prove to be a repeat of the LBOD (Left Bank Outfall Drain) and destroy lands in case of heavy rains and hill torrents formed an All-Parties Action Committee as work on different sites of the drain continued.

They claimed that the drain was earlier planned to be dug up along the right side of the KB Feeder but its was changed later on the intervention of some well-connected landlords and now it was being dug on the left side of the KB Feeder.

The action committee headed by Mushtaq Shoro claimed that Kotri’s water would turn brackish, around 1,500 houses in 30 villages worth Rs360 million in Khanpur and Karokaho would have to be demolished and Rs300 million worth katcha houses, schools, watercourses and hospitals would have to be dismantled under the changed plan.

The committee believed that the drain would destroy 20,000 acres of precious agricultural land causing losses of Rs6 billion and displace 1,500 families.

The area in package five and six of the RBOD-II project is known as green belt spread over 15 kilometres covering dehs of Khanpur, Kotri, Karokhao of Kotri taluka with a population of 0.1 million people.

"They want to destroy us economically just because digging on fertile land is easier than hilly terrain. Our one acre of land's input comes to Rs0.1 million annually," said a villager of Chaudhry Karam Deen village, Muzaffar alias Fauji.

The authorities would have also to cross half a dozen railway tracks to excavate the drain on the left side, he added.

Kotri Taluka Naib Nazim Dr. Saleem Tahir who supports villagers said that seepage from the drain would turn also make KB Feeder’s water brackish which was the only source of drinking water for Kotri and Jamshoro.

"If the drain is excavated on the right side it will easily carry domestic/industrial waste of Jamshoro and Kotri which currently finds it way into KB," he said.

He said that the drain on KB's left side would also increase chances of inundation of the town in case of possible breaches in the RBOD or overflows from heavy rains.The RBOD-II, to be connected with Indus link in Deh Karampur in Sehwan taluka to take effluent from MNV (main nara valley) drain to the sea, will carry around 3,500 cusec of industrial wastewater while covering a distance of around 273 kilometres.

The project’s cost has been revised from Rs14 billion to Rs29 billion now but work on its construction has been delayed. The outgoing project director Bashir Dahar had said that on June 13, 2003 that the drain would be completed by Jan 1, 2006. The project now is expected to be completed by the end of next year.

The chief minister said while chairing meeting attended by Jamshoro district nazim and 5-Corps Headquarter officials that the disputed area between DW-R2-05 and DW-R2-06 should be lined to avoid environmental effects.

He asked the irrigation department to continue work as per PC-I approved earlier which envisaged alignment of drain on the left side of KB.

The 5-Corps official had told the chief minister that work on the project had run into snags and would not be completed by the end of 2008.

The officials said that digging the drain on KB's right side would not be feasible due to high sand dunes, railway track and around 300 bricked houses in Mahmood Shah Colony.

The RBOD Superintending Engineer Altaf Hussain Soomro said that the railways department had demanded Rs600 million for shifting the track which would cover nine reduced distance (RDs) - the length of drain to and from certain point and one RD covers around 1,000 feet distance.

Work on project in Kotri taluka came to a halt last month when residents of Chaudhry Karam Deen village, located on the left side of KB Feeder reacted violently and damaged equipment and vehicles of project executors.

Their petition is pending besides a contempt of court application filed by Mushtaq Shoro and others against executive engineer of RBOD Nasrullah Soomro for defying high court's order on their constitutional petition.

The LBOD have wreaked havoc in Mirpurkhas, Badin and other adjoining towns after backflow of water. People also made cuts into the drain to dispose of rainwater.

MNA Abdul Ghani Talpur said that the drain seemed to be feasible on the right side of the feeder because no fertile land, mosques, schools and villages were located there but authorities were insisting on digging it on the left side to save R20 billion. "Rs14 billion have already been spent while summary for the remaining Rs10 billion has been floated by authorities," he said.