President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday performed the ground-breaking ceremony of Rs 8732.128 million Darwat Dam project. The concrete-packed rockfill dam will be completed in 3 years and will help irrigate a command area of 50,000 acres, extendable to 80,000 acres of surveyed and unsurveyed barani land.
On the occasion the President was informed in a briefing by Chairman Wapda Shakil Durrani that major objective of the project is to conserve flood water of Nai Baran for irrigation and development of 50,000 acres of cultivable land with high efficiency irrigation system.
The project will bring socio-economic development of remote areas of Sindh. The President was informed that initially an area of 4756-18 acres of Chak No 7 and 13258-16 acres of Chak No 8 of Deh Kohistan has been surveyed and temporary plots have been carved out by the Directorate of Settlement, Survey and Land Record Sindh.
The President was informed that the dam will have a 100-year long life with height of 141 feet, 738 feet in length and top of 30 feet. The dam will have a storage capacity of 119,546 acre feet including 32,283 dead storage and 87.264 acre feet live storage.
It was informed that during the first phase 25 acres of land will be distributed among landless women haris (farmers) and so far 100 poorest of poor landless women haris have been identified by Sindh Revenue department and National Rural Support Program which will greatly help in poverty alleviation.
The President was further informed that state land will be granted after completion of all codal formalities and 'sanads" of these land to be granted have been prepared and efforts are being made to mobilise special mobile teams of NADRA to prepare computerised national identity cards for these women.
Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khan, Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Parvez Ashraf, State Minister for Communication Imtiaz Safdar Waraich were also present in the briefing. Later the President performed the ground breaking of M-9, Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway project. The project has been initiated at an estimated cost of Rs 13.5 billion and will take 30 months to complete.
The 130 km long motorway with conversion from 4 to 6 lanes will stretch from Sohrab Goth to Jamshoro. The project also incorporates the construction of 32 bridges with creation of seven new inter-changes, 46 box culverts and 335 pipe culverts. The project has been divided into nine packages including seven for roads and two for inter-changes. The Project will connect Keti Bandar to Gharo, which is also connected with Karachi through National Highway.
The 90 km long Highway will be completed in 18 months at a cost of Rs 3.3 billion. The Highway will have six bridges, 87 box culverts and 109 pipe culverts. The Highway will open up the area of Gharo-Keti Bandar for agri and aqua-culture as well as preservation and development of marine live with focus on development of mangrove forests. It will also facilitate the development of state of the art fish harbour at Keti Bandar besides allied cottage industries. It will also lead to development of renewable energy resources and development of natural resources for the benefit of national economy.