MANSEHRA, July 3: The Water and Power Development Authority will construct five hydel power stations on the Kunhar River in the Kaghan Valley in collaboration with the NWFP government.

This was said by Wapda chairman Zulfiqar Ali Khan at a press briefing in Naran on Tuesday.

Enumerating the merits of the project, the chairman said that after construction of the hydel power stations, people of the valley would have access to cheaper energy and other facilities. He also said that electrification schemes in 1,487 villages, which were left incomplete in the past, would be completed on a priority basis.

He said that preservation of water resources in the country was the prime objective of Wapda which could only be achieved by promoting national thinking among the people of all the provinces.

The Wapda chief regretted that the Kalabagh dam project had been made controversial. He said Wapda had chalked out a strategy to preserve all the water resources of the country by 2025.

He said that army had been withdrawn from Wapda in view of the border tension. However, he added, an army officer of the colonel rank was still performing his duties on the administrative side in each region of Wapda. “We have made Wapda self-reliant and now it is a profit-earning organization,” he remarked.