Rehabilitation of Sukkur Barrage would cost Rs 25,000 million to the government while the cost of construction of a new barrage would be around Rs 100,000 million. This was stated by Secretary Irrigation Zaheer Hyder Shah while briefing Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Sukkur Barrage at the Sindh CM House here on Monday, said a statement from Chief Minister's House.
The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Siddique Memon, Principal Secretary Alamuddin Bullo, Secretary Finance Sohail Rajput and other concerned engineers and senior officers.
He said Sukkur Barrage was constructed on River Indus in 1923-32. Sedimentation problems started developing within two years of construction. The permanent closure of 10 gates has formed an island and a submerged weir which has reduced the flood capacity of the barrage from 1.5 million to 900,000 cusecs. The Secretary Irrigation said that all the gates were replaced between the years 1986-92 and emergency repairs were executed in 2004 when a large scour hole developed in right pocket.
Replying to a question of the Sindh CM regarding the findings of feasibility study, Zaheer Hyder Shah said all the gates of the barrage were in good condition except the five which needed to be replaced. He said its pond level and freeboard below the gates also required to be increased. That would help open the gates to their maximum level, he added.
He said electrical work of the barrage needed to be replaced and a modern monitoring and control room might be established. Talking about risk of failure for the existing barrage, the Secretary said the flood of 2010 passed with freeboard margin of just about two feet when the gates were opened completely. During high floods only 27 of the 66 barrage gates remained active causing risky flow concentration in central left part of the barrage, he said.
He said 10 gates of the barrage were closed permanently between the years 1938-46. As a result an island developed in front of the closed gates. He pointed out that large curvature of existing outer bank cast a shutdown to further 17 gates in passing of the flood rivers. The limited capacity for flood access into left and right pockets restricted 12 more gates in passing of flood to their fully capacity, he added.
Replying to another question of the Sindh CM, the Secretary Irrigation said rehabilitation of the barrage which included repair of canal head regulators, right pocket river training works, fish-pass and overflow weir in span 59, dredging works, electrical works, modernisation of monitoring and control instruments, construction of new buildings monitoring, control system, laboratory, workshops and other buildings would cost Rs 25,000 million.
Talking about construction of a new barrage with same dimensions as existing barrage he said it would cost Rs 100,000 million which would be four times the cost of proposed rehabilitation. The construction of new barrage may take eight to 12 years, he added.
Giving details of the importance of Sukkur Barrage, the Secretary said it contributed 30 percent in the GDP of provincial agriculture while there was 80 percent agriculture dependence on Sukkur Barrage.
He said in case of its failure there would be eight million cusecs decline in irrigation water, 25 percent reduction from Rs 7,308 million to Rs 5,113 million in the provincial GDP. It would cause five percent impact on national economy and to affect 26.4 million population of the province. The Sindh CM said rehabilitation of the Sukkur Barrage was need of hour and "we would hold another meeting to take a concrete decision. Now, it is very simple to protect the barrage means protects the agriculture of Sindh," he added.
Comments
Comments are closed.