Staff Reporter Lahore
The construction work on the extension of Kachhi Canal is scheduled to be completed by August 2022 to irrigate another 30,000 acres of virgin land in Dera Bugti district of Balochistan.
This was stated by Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) Chairman Lt Gen Muzammil Hussain (Retd) during his visit to the project area on Sunday.
General Manager (Cen-tral) Water Ata Ullah Memon, Project Director Kachhi Canal Syed Ali Akhtar Shah, representatives of the contractors and the consultants were also present during the visit.
Reviewing construction activities on the site, WAPDA Chairman expressed satisfaction over pace of work on the project despite Covid-19 pandemic that has adversely impacted the world for more than one-and-a-half year.
He asked the project authorities to strictly adhere to the timelines, so that the exten-sion work could be completed on time.
The Chair-man said that WAPDA is committed to contributing towards a green and prosperous Pakistan, Balochis-tan in particular, by completing its projects to make water available for agriculture. Kachhi Canal is one of those projects, he added.
Earlier, the project management briefed the Chairman about progress on the extension of Kachhi Canal.
The extension of Kachhi Canal is being carried out through three different contracts with cumula-tive cost of Rs.19.504 billion. Under the works, existing main canal will be further extended by an-other 40 kilometers (Km).
In addition, 32-Km long water distribution system will also be constructed in the command area to irrigate another 30,000 acres of land in Dera Bugti district of Balochistan.
WAPDA has already constructed 363-Km main canal and 81-Km long allied water distribution sys-tem to irrigate 72,000 acres of land.
