PESHAWAR, Jan 27: The Malakand-III hydro-power project to be executed in the provincial public sector would involve a future opportunity to bring some 20,000 acres of barren land under irrigation, according to an information provided to Dawn .

The opportunity to bring under irrigation 20,000 acres of barren land in the Bazai, Dobandi and Vartair areas near Dargai, in the now defunct Malakand division, has been created after making certain changes in the design of the power channel.

The realignment of the power channel — at the designing stage — would provide 200 cusecs water to irrigate vast barren area in the above mentioned region, according to the official documents.

The official sources talking to Dawn said that the hydro-power project would also involve an outlet for the execution of a project in future which would enable gravity irrigation of about 20,000 acres of land in the nearby barren areas.

Involving an estimated cost of $106m, the Malakand-III hydro-power station to be executed with the help of provincial resources and bank borrowing primarily included only power generation component.

However, minor changes in its design have created a window to utilize it for irrigation purposes.

The project would be the first of its kind to be purely executed in the public sector by the government of NWFP — the idea originally conceived during the days of the Sardar Mehtab government and pursued in the military backed civilian government in the province.

The chief minister of NWFP, Akram Khan Durrani, would preside over the foundation stone laying ceremony to be held at the project site on Tuesday to mark the commencement of the execution of the civil works.

Out of the total funds required to complete the hydro-power generation component of the project the provincial government would heavily rely on the bank borrowing as the project would be executed on 40:60 equity debt ratio.

The 40 per cent equity participation would be funded from the NWFP hydel development fund for which government of NWFP had also transferred a sum of Rs3.2 bn to the irrigation and power department, NWFP.

In line with a notification under section (4) of the Land Acquisition Act, issued in October 2001, the district revenue officer (collector), Malakand protected areas, acquired some 148.875 acres of land.

The land acquired by making payment of Rs119m has already been given in the possession of the Sarhad Hydle Development Organization (Shydo) — the provincial public sector entity which would supervise the execution of the project.

To enable the execution of the multi-purpose project particularly the establishment of the power house, according to the information, the army authorities have also shifted their firing range up to 100 meters from its previous location.