LAHORE, Jan 17: The Sindh irrigation and power department has signed an agreement with a consortium of three firms, led by the National Development Consultants (NDC) , for providing engineering services and construction supervision of a vast network of the irrigation and drainage system in the province.

The project costing Rs119 billion will be completed in four years.

The two other firms in the consortium are the Engineering Consultants International (Pvt) Limited (ECIL) and the Engineering Associates of Karachi.

The agreement was signed by Secretary Bashir Ahmed Dahar, irrigation and power department, and Ghulam Hussain, managing partner of the NDC, Akhlaq Ahmad of the ECIL and Muzammil Qureshi of the Engineering Associates.

On return from Karachi after signing the pact, Ghulam Hussain on Saturday gave details of this gigantic irrigation project.

He said the vast Sindh irrigation system was comprised of 14 canals.

"Total length of these canals is 18,500km with related infrastructure of barrages, water falls, regulators and cross regulators, super-passages and siphons, etc," he added.

He said the infrastructure of the irrigation system in Sindh had deteriorated over the years due to frequent breaches in canal banks and clogging of channels with sediments and debris.

On completion of the project after four years, he said, the irrigation and drainage system would be operating for another 100 years to achieve their envisaged objectives.

"The wastage of water will substantially be reduced, more land will be reclaimed from water logging, new areas will come under irrigation, yield of crops will increase, socio-economic conditions of farmers will improve with relative increase in the GDP, besides opening new opportunities of employment," he pointed out.

Ghulam Hussain said a team of very experienced engineers led by Mohammad Idris Rajput, former Sindh irrigation secretary, has been given the task to carry out this assignment.-PPI