SUKKUR, April 23 A pit, about 35 feet deep and 35 feet wide, has developed near Sukkur Barrage's submerge weir, a 300 feet long wall, which stops silt from depositing in the canals, according to informed sources.

The sources said on Thursday that the barrage authorities knew about existence of the pit, which could damage the weir anytime but they were more interested in hushing up the issue than taking measure to avert the imminent danger.

The sources said that after construction of the barrage in 1926, it was observed that heavy silt was depositing in the right pocket canals, which included Rice Canal, Dadu Canal and Kirthar Canal.

Therefore, the 300 feet long submerge weir was constructed in 1940 from the middle of Lab-e-Mehran to the regulator of the canals with an aim to stop silt from depositing in the canals, the sources said.

The sources said that former executive engineer of Sukkur Barrage Irshad Memon had sent a report on the pit to the Sindh government last year but nothing had been done so far to avert the impending danger.

However, Irshad Memon who was now posted in Mirpur Mathelo denied sending such a report to the government and the present executive engineer of Sukkur Barrage Zareef Khero also denied existence of the pit.

The sources insisted that the pit had was some 1500 feet away from the main structure of Sukkur Barrage but it was quite near to the weir and could prove harmful.

Earlier in 2004, a 30 feet deep and 30 feet wide pit had developed near span No1 and 2 at the downstream and when reports about its existence emerged in the media, the barrage authorities first denied them but then undertook large scale rehabilitation work and spent more than Rs750 million to repair it, said the sources.

The authorities once again were in denial about the pit and were trying to hush up the matter instead of repairing it.

Former secretary of irrigation Idrees Rajput said that he was though not aware about the pit near the weir but if it had developed then remedial measures should be taken immediately to repair it, otherwise, if it damaged the weir then Indus water would rush directly to the canals and it would result in accumulation of heavy silt in the canals.