Govt to initiate Rs150bn project of water supply to federal capital from Ghazi Barotha dam: Ali Nawaz

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Capital Development Authority Affairs Ali Nawaz Awan Friday said the government initiated Rs. 150 billion mega project of water supply to the federal capital from Ghazi Barotha dam besides reserving a land of 100 kanals in Bhara Kahu for a new graveyard.

He said the previous government failed to mitigate the needs of growing population and expansion of the capital.

In an exclusive talk with PTV, the SAPM said the issues of the federal capital are different from other cities.

He said currently, the capital is supplied with 54 MGD water against its need of 204 MGD.

Now, the financial consultancy of Ghazi Barotha water supply scheme has been opened and it will be made functional with water supply of 100 MGD each to Rawalpindi and Islamabad in next 3 to 4 years, he expressed.

Ali Nawaz Awan said to prevent the capital from facing Karachi like situation in future, we have to make vertical plans instead of following old horizontal plans, as envisioned by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Pakistan is ranked number 2 in the world in urbanization which is alarming for us, he said adding that delimitation of the capital city was high need of the time.

To a question, he said that following implementation of Local Government Act 2015, 28 municipal departments were devolved to Municipal Corporation Islamabad (MCI) leaving the Capital Development Authority (CDA) with responsibilities of only development works.

He stressed on the need of introducing a strong and powerful LG system for Islamabad city to resolve the issues of the masses at grass roots levels.