The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) has approved the ‘Nai Gaj Dam Project (2nd revised PC-I) for Dadu, Sindh’ at a cost of Rs46.98 billion. The project is being developed for the conservation of the available flood flows with a gross storage capacity of 0.30MAF and power generation of 4.2MW. The project will help in the irrigation of 56,739 acres of land while at the same time controlling soil erosion on the downstream side of the dam. According to the details for the project, WAPDA and Sindh Irrigation Department will be the executing agencies for the proposed project.
ECNEC approved another project in the water sector in Balochistan province titled ‘Basol Dam Project’ on the Basol River. The project would be sponsored by the Ministry of Water Resources and executed by the provincial irrigation department at a cost of Rs18.67 billion.
During the meeting the ECNEC also approved the establishment of 48MW Jagran Hydropower Station (Phase-II) in district Neelum, AJK. The project was approved at the cost of Rs11.37 billion. The project will be sponsored by the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan and executed by Power Development Organization, AJK. The project is being constructed on the intermediate stretch of Jagran River and will generate annual energy of 212.43GWh
The Rs25.552bn Greater Karachi Water Supply Scheme (K-IV) 260 MGD (Phase-I) was also approved by Ecnec for additional water supply to Karachi. The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and Wapda will be the executing agencies for the project. It is funded on a 50:50 basis by the federal and provincial governments.
The committee also approved Rs24.494bn worth of Sindh Resilience Project (Irrigation Component) for construction of small dams to address the drought-prone areas of Sindh, including system for improving resilience phase-II in Malir (Karachi), Jamshoro, Thatta, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sukkur, Khairpur, Qambar-Shahdad Kot and Tharparkar districts.
During the meeting the committee also approved the ‘Balochistan Integrated Water Resources Management and Development Project (BIWRMDP)’, to be sponsored and executed by the Balochistan Irrigation Department. The six yearlong project will increase agricultural production, generate employment opportunities and develop the agro-based industry through Integrated Water Resource Management across 11 districts of Balochistan. The proposed project is funded by the World Bank – IDA (up to 96pc) and the Balochistan government (up to 4pc), amounting to Rs14.74 billion in total.
