NAWABSHAH, Oct 20: An aeronautical complex will be established at Nawabshah airport soon. This was announced by Sindh Chief Secretary Ghulam Ali Shah Pasha at a ceremony at Darbar hall on Wednesday who also handed over documents of 571 acres of land allocated for the complex to Air Vice-Marshal Arshad Quddus.

Talking to journalists, the chief secretary said that the aeronautical complex was being established here on the directives of President Asif Ali Zardari. He said that the complex would be constructed within a year and provide technical education to local people besides creating more than 4,000 jobs.

He said that over 7.3 million people of Sindh were affected by unprecedented floods whereas crops over an area of 2.4 million acres were destroyed.

He said that the provincial government would make a 50 per cent cut in the annual development funds due to expenditure on flood-related activities.

The chief secretary said that land lease in katcha areas would be given to only landless farmers on the basis of proprietary rights under the revised policy of the government.

Mr Pasha said that strict vigilance was being maintained on the river bed and forest land and no one would be allowed to build private embankments or occupy forest land.

Answering a question about future planning to cope with floods, he said that local engineers, experts and foreign consultancy firms have been engaged to devise a foolproof mechanism to meet the flood challenges in future.

He said that a Chinese firm had been engaged to conduct a survey in this regard.

He said that the government has planned to increase discharge capacity of Sukkur Barrage from 900,000 to two million cusec. Similarly, the capacity of other barrages would also be increased, he added.

He said that strengthening of embankments of Indus River and canals had been included in the future planning.

To another question, the chief secretary said that the Sindh government was planning de-watering from the areas still under flood water and efforts were being made to complete this task before Rabi season.

Provincial Secretary Finance Siddique Memon, Secretary Health Syed Hashim Raza Zaidi, Secretary Forests Mushtaq Memon, Secretary Education Ilmuddin Bullo, Secretary Information Mumtaz Shah and Administrator Shaheed Benazirabad Jamal Mustafa Syed were also present on the occasion.