QUETTA, July 26: Wapda chairman Shakeel Ahmed Durrani said on Saturday that Quetta would soon have a 150MW rental powerhouse and work on the Dadu-Khuzdar, Kot Addo and Dera Ghazi Khan-Loralai transmission lines would start shortly.

Mr Durrani informed a high-level meeting which was presided over by Chief Minister Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani that the authority was trying its best to complete the project in the minimum possible time.

The meeting was informed that four small- and medium-sized dams would be constructed in Balochistan — Hingol and Winder dams in Lasbela, new long dam in Jhal Magsi and Iskalnji dam in the Bolan district.

The construction of the dams would cost between Rs23 million and Rs38 million. An additional 145,000 acres of land would be cultivated in the areas served by the dams and they would produce 4.3MW electricity.

The meeting was informed that first phase of the Kachhi canal project would be completed till end of 2009 and the government was making efforts to complete other phases of the project in minimum possible time. Around 500km long Kachhi canal would have around 713,000 acres command area.

It was decided that Wapda, provincial government and other departments concerned would evolve a joint strategy for removing hurdles in the construction of the project.

With the completion of Kachhi canal, Balochistan would have 6,000 cusecs additional water from Indus river that would bring a revolution in the agriculture sector of the province.

Wapda officials informed the meeting that Balochistan was presently receiving 650MW electricity and it needed 1,050MW more to fulfil the requirement. They said Wapda was covering the shortage of electricity through load-shedding.

The meeting decided that power load supplying to the tube wells would be jointly checked by Wapda and provincial government officials. Senior Minister Maulana Abdul Wasey, Chief Secretary Nasir Mehmood Khosa and senior officials of Wapda attended the meeting.