KARACHI, April 23: President Pervez Musharraf will lay the foundation-stone of the Greater Karachi Water Supply Scheme (Phase-V, Stage-II) on April 28 near the Karachi University’s reservoir.

The foundation-stone laying ceremony of the Rs6.104 billion project was earlier scheduled to be performed in March last, it was delayed for a month to make it coincide with the President’s public address scheduled for the same date.

With the commissioning of the project, the city’s water supply will increase to 534 mgd and hence the gap between the city’s water supply and demand will reduce considerably as a feasibility study has estimated the city’s water demand at 594 mgd.

The KWSB sources said that the President would unveil a plaque near the Karachi University reservoir, giving green signal for laying an 84-inch dia pipeline from the reservoir to the COD filter plant.

Giving details, they said that 60 per cent of the total 100 mgd would be provided to the deficit pockets of the former district West, five per cent to Balauchistan and the remaining 35 pc would be used to improve the overall water supply situation of the city.

The project being financed by both the federal and Sindh governments has already been approved by the ECNEC and its concept clearance has been accorded approval by the provincial government a long time ago.

The sources said that the salient feature of the proposed K-3 was that it would cost only Rs6.104 billion as against the K-2 project which was completed in June, 1999, at a cost of Rs10 billion. They added that the cost of the K-3 project had been considerably reduced because the existing 30-kilometre long canal that was constructed under K-2 project would also be used for the K-3 project as well.