LAHORE, March 20: Governor Lt-Gen Khalid Maqbool (retired) will inaugurate shortly a Rs360 million canal water irrigation scheme for Lahore’s the border villages, city district Nazim Amer Mahmood disclosed on Wednesday.

The Nazim was speaking to villagers during a visit to Kamahan, Ludhar, Heer, Dhaloki, Hudiara and Burki. After the completion of the project, he said, 72,000 acres land owned by 200,000 families would be irrigated by canal water.

He said that the border areas villagers had been demanding the canal water irrigation facility for the past 35 years. Earlier, government tubewells supplying water for irrigation had been closed down throughout the country except in the border areas of Lahore.

He said that the government was not only making canal water available for border areas of Lahore but had also established agricultural machinery pools where nine types of machines and equipment were available on rent.