ABBOTTABAD, Nov 17: The Japanese government has approved a Rs1.2 billion water supply scheme for the Abbottabad district and work on the project will start in January, district nazim Mustafa Khan Jadoon told a pres conference here on Wednesday.

Giving details, the nazim said that Gravity Water Scheme was the second largest Japan-aided project in the country and added that it would be completed in a year and a half.

He said the federal government had agreed to provide the initial Rs100 million which are supposed to be arranged by the local or the provincial government. Under the scheme, he said, water sources of Gaya, Bagh and Gandar Bari would be used for supplying drinking water to the city which had been facing acute water shortage since long.

Mr Jadoon said that besides the construction of purification plants in the city, reservoirs would be built in different localities. He said water would be supplied to the entire city except the cantonment which, he added, would have to pay a price if they required it.

He said that after the scheme became operational, the district government would save more then Rs80 million annually spent on the repairs and electricity bills of tube wells.