The government has planned to construct 32 small and medium dams in all provinces, which would be constructed in phase wise by 2014. The government has allocated Rs 250 billion for the construction of these dams during the PSDP of 2009/10 and it was expected, official sources told this agency here Sunday.
Out of these 32 dams, 13 dams would be constructed in first phase and work on some dams has been started, they said. They said that five dams would be constructed in Balochistan, four in Sindh, two in NWFP and Punjab each. An amount of Rs 23.439 has been spent so far on the projects, they said.
They said these dams would be multi-purpose and would be both for irrigation and generating hydel power.
They said Allai, Khan Khwar, Duber Khwar, Jinnah hydropower projects were also under construction and expected to be completed in year 2010/2011. The sources said that water wing of Wapda was responsible for planning, designing and execution of water resources development projects in the sector of irrigation, drainage and hydropower.
Inter-provincial major surface projects including large dams were also operated and maintained by the water wing, they added. The sources said the wing had already completed Indus Basin projects, five barrages, 8 inter-river link canals, Mangla and Tarbella dams and were contributing substantially towards national economy. They said Neelum Jhelum Hydropower project was under construction while Golen Gol project was in progress. Detailed engineering design and tender of documents of Kohala, Bunji, Phandar, Basho, Keyal Khwar, Lawi and Harpo were under process, they said.
Similarly, they said, upgradation of feasibility study and detailed engineering design of Tarbella 4th extension was being taken up and would commence shortly.
The government had expedited work on the construction of the dams to bridge gap between the demand and supply of electricity and to get rid of the loadshedding, they said.