MUZAFFARGARH, Jan 20: An inquiry committee set up to probe into the breach of an embankment at the Taunsa Barrage on the Indus river has yet to meet and start work, Dawn has learnt.

Work on the Taunsa Remodelling and Rehabilitation project was disrupted when machinery and two embankments were swept away on Jan 15. Construction companies blame the Irrigation Department for keeping them in dark about the rising water level, while the department says that constructors used substandard material in the embankments. The Punjab government had announced an inquiry would be launched into the matter.

Sources in the Irrigation Department told Dawn on Tuesday that neither World Bank representatives nor inquiry team members had visited the barrage site to assess the loss and probe into the breach. They said the committee was likely to meet on Jan 23 at the barrage.

The sources said that the department had not received any notification from the Punjab government about the schedule for starting water supply into Muzaffargarh and Dera Ghazi Khan canals. The DG Canal not only irrigates lands in DG Khan and Rajanpur districts but also supplies drinking water to the people in Rajanpur.

Earlier, the Punjab government had issued press release, stating that the Muzaffargarh canal would open on March 2 against the earlier schedule for Feb 11.

Separately, Taunsa Irrigation Executive Engineer Mahr Amin said that construction companies had plugged the breach and construction of the barrage would begin shortly. He said that he could not rule how much loss the breach had incurred, but it should be less than Rs3 billion as earlier claimed by construction companies.