A high level meeting in the Presidency on Tuesday reviewed the progress made so far regarding lowering of Attabad Lake level in the Hunza Valley and the reconstruction and realignment of the portion of KKH that was damaged as a result of massive landslide of January last year.
The meeting was held to review the progress made over the decisions taken during an earlier meeting held in the Presidency in July last year. The meeting chaired by the President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani was attended among others by Minister for Communication Dr Arbab Alamgir Khan, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Federal Minister for Defence, Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Federal Minister for Finance, Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo, Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan, M. Salman Faruqui, Secretary-General to the President, CM Gilgit-Baltistan Syed Mehdi Shah, General Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani, Chief of Army Staff, Senator Syeda Sughra Imam, and other senior officials besides representatives of Chinese Embassy.
The meeting reviewed the progress made so far in lowering the lake level through controlled blasting and mechanical excavation. The briefing in this regard was given by DG FWO Major General Najibullah Khan. It was informed that the work on spillway widening commenced on October 2010 pursuant to the decision taken during July last meeting in the Presidency and after approval of the design proposal in September 2010.It was informed that FWO has completed phase-1 of the project, ie, digging of the spillway up to 24m while work on phase 2 of the project was underway.
The meeting decided to make resources available for further expediting the lowering of water level of Attabad Lake. The President directed to expedite the realignment of the submerged portion of KKH for which funds have been made available by China.
The meeting was also informed that the proposal of China Reconstruction Bridges Corporation (CRBC) for construction of 13km new road and rehabilitation of 22km of existing section of KKH by lowering the water level of Attabad Lake has been accepted and National Highway Authority had signed a contract with CRBC in this regard.-PR