PESHAWAR: The construction of seven small dams had been completed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) umbrella project. The dams have been constructed at a cost of Rs. 2684 million.
The completed projects have a total live storage capacity of 21694 acre feet whereas cultivable command area of the projects is 11710 acres cumulatively.
This was told in a meeting of irrigation department held here with the Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan to review the progress on the construction of small dams being executed through PSDP project, said an official new release issued here on Sunday.
Additional Chief Secretary Shakeel Qadar Khan, Principle Secretary to Chief Minister Shahab Ali Shah, administrative secretary of Irrigation department, Director General small dams and other relevant authorities attended the meeting.
The forum was informed that under the PSDP umbrella project, construction of seven small dams in various districts of the province had been completed including Loughar Dam Karak, Khair Bara Dam Haripur, Karak Dam Karak, Jabba Khattak Dam Nowshera, Darmalak Dam Kohat, Ghole Banda Dam Karak and Mardan Khel Dam Karak. The meeting was further informed that construction of Zamir Gul Dam, Kohat and Bada Dam, Swabi was in progress and would be completed at the estimated revised cost of Rs 1128.22 million and Rs 1921.408 million respectively.
Physical progress on Zamir Gul Dam was 95% whereas 70% physical work on Bada Dam, Swabi project has been completed. Total cultivable command area of these two projects is 5965 acres. It was also informed that besides the aforementioned PSDP projects the provincial government was also working on various small dams through its own sources under the annual development program.
The chief minister on the occasion underlined the need for speedy completion of ongoing small dam projects and directed the authorities concerned to prepare revised PC-I for the construction of leftover PSDP projects of small dams. He said that keeping in view the possible water shortage in future, construction of small dams was the need of hour, which would not only increase the water storage capacity but also be helpful to promote agriculture production as well as to provide water to the people.
“The provincial government was working through realistic developmental strategy devised in accordance with the needs of different areas under which All the schemes regarding construction of small dams need to be completed on priority,” he concluded.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020