ISLAMABAD, May 13: President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has directed the ministries of finance and food & agriculture to accelerate work on the Rs18 billion National Drainage Programme to be completed by June 2004.

Official sources said here on Monday that the president has called for removing the snags in the completion of the much delayed project which was originally approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on May 5, 1997.

Work on National Surface Drainage Study and Master Plan was being expedited to identify various spines and outfalls locations for the drainage effluent. A ministerial committee has finalized the formulation of the programme and the expected cost of the projects was Rs18 billion as against the original cost of Rs31.5 billion.

The main objective of National Drainage Programme is to restore sustainability of irrigated agriculture in an environmentally sound manner by minimization of drainage surplus and by evacuation of the same from the Indus Basin to the Sea.

The programme has four components which includes institutional reforms, coordination, research & studies and investment. The programme is being assisted by the Asian Development Bank, International Development Agency and Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund.

There have been problems of implementation due to the slow progress of consultants, unauthorized implementation of investment component, slow formulation of sub projects and complex institutional reforms. In the past three years, physical progress was only 14 per cent as against the targeted 50 per cent.

The president had constituted a committee under the chairmanship of federal minister for food and agriculture to formulate the project for the remaining three years by including high priority to sub-projects in consultation with the provinces.

Until June 30, 2001, Rs6.1 billion had been spent on the project. And Public Sector Development Programme allocation for current fiscal year was Rs1 billion, out of which Rs300 million had been spent by December 31, 2001.