ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan Tuesday told the government that there should be no delay at all in the construction of Winder Dam in Balochistan. Giving time to the private company to hire a lawyer, Justice Mushir Alam, said that any attempt to halt the project of national importance would not be allowed.
The owner of a private construction company sought four weeks to hire a lawyer, to which, Justice Alam said that in case of cost over-run, the company will be held responsible. Another member of the bench, Justice Mushir Alam said that the national importance project could not be halted as the delay would also enhance the costs of the project.
"The delay in the project could soar the cost from Rs10 billion to Rs50 billion," Justice Amin remarked. He said that the auction process of the project should be transparent, adding in case of any malpractice in the process of auction, no one would be spared.
The bench was hearing a petition of the Balochistan government against the high court decision on auction of the Winder Dam contract. The Balochistan High Court had ordered for an open auction of awarding the construction project of the dam.
The provincial government had challenged the high court's decision in the apex court, and a division bench comprising Justice Mushir Alam and Qazi Amin heard the case. For construction of the Winder Dam, the tender of the project was opened on September 28, 2009, and was awarded to a joint venture of Canadian and Pakistani consultants and contractors.
Due to failure of the contractor to provide performance guarantee, the contract was cancelled. An earth-core rock-fill dam will create gross storage of 36,484 acre-foot water to irrigate 10,000 acres of command area, and its power house will generate 300 kW electricity.
Winder Dam project will now be constructed at the cost of Rs15.230 billion. The federal government will finance the project entirely, which would be executed by Irrigation Department of Balochistan government.
The main objective of the project is to provide 50 cusecs assured irrigation water supply to irrigate 10,000 acres of agriculture land round the year with average cropping intensity of 82 percent.
The Winder Dam is a proposed small, low-head, earth core rockfill, hydroelectric power generation dam of 0.3 megawatt generation capacity, located across Winder River about 100 km from Karachi in Lasbela District, Balochistan.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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