70% of work on K-IV canal completed: FWO

Sindh, fed govts constitute technical committee to review Nespak’s report on the project

KARACHI: The Sindh government and the Centre have constituted a joint technical committee to review the technical report of the K-IV project, to be submitted by the National Engineering Services Pakistan (Nespak) by the end of the month. Nespak has estimated the cost of the project at around Rs120 billion.

The decision to form the committee was taken meeting attended by Federal Minister for Planning and Development Khusro Bakhtiar, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Jahanzaib khan, Planning secretary Zaffar Ahsan and Planning Commission member Major Gen (retd) Zahir Shah at the Chief Minister House on Monday.

The chief minister was supported by Governor Imran Ismail, Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Shah, Labour Minister Saeed Ghani, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, P&D Chairperson Nahid Shah and Principal Secretary to the CM Sajid jamal Abro.



Meanwhile, a delegation of the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), led by its DG, Major General Inam Haider, and comprising Brigadier Abdul Sami of Corps V, Brigadier Abeer and others also attended the meeting. Besides, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board Asadullah Khan, K-IV Project Director Asad Zamin and other relevant officers were also in attendance.

Briefing the meeting, the FWO DG said that a 121-kilometre canal was being constructed from Keenjhar Lake. He said that an 11-metre deep canal has been constructed and its mouth has been developed inside the canal at 257 metres from the soil area. Of the 127 kilometres, the water would flow under gravity for up to 91km. Around 70% of the civil work on the canal has been completed.

Alignment issues

The meeting was informed that there were some alignment issues on which Nespak was working to conduct a third party assessment. Nespak's GM Jawaid Mir, Mirza Asif Baig and Mohammad Afzal, who represented the agency in the meeting, said that they might suggest some modifications in the existing alignment of the canal.

The experts explained that they were conducting a geo-study of the embankment of the canal to ascertain whether it would be able to sustain the pressure of 660 million gallons of water per day. "We will complete the study by the end of the month and submit it to the provincial government," said a Nespak representative.

At this, Federal Minister Bakhtiar said that the project was at an advance stage and needed another technical review by a team of experts. The CM suggested constituting a joint team of the provincial Planning and Development Department and the federal government's Planning Commission to review the technicalities of the report to be submitted by the Nespak. The participants agreed to constitute a team which would be notified by the federal Planning Commission.

Project cost

Nespak said that the project would cost around Rs120 billion. The chief minister clarified, however, that it would cost Rs150 billion because of the devaluation of the rupee against the dollar. Moreover, a 50 mega-watt power plant has also been proposed for the project. The consultant has almost finalised the PC-I of the power project.

Other projects

Meanwhile, the CM said that the K-I, K-II and K-III had been designed with a capacity of 480MGD, which has been reduced by 100MGD due to silt deposits and other technical issues. He proposed to conduct a separate study to improve the capacity of the other projects.

Shah told the federal government representatives that water was an issue of life and death for the city of Karachi. "We started the K-IV so that it could be completed but over 15 years have passed in its planning and implementation and it still appears that it would take a few more years," he said.

Bakhtiar suggested the installation of desalination plants in the city to cater to the urgent need of water, but those too would take two to three years to complete. The CM said that his government was ready to install desalination plants in the city if the federal government extended financial support. The federal minister assured the CM of his support and urged him to submit the necessary proposal for approval.



The FWO and the Sindh government showed their resolve to complete K-IV project by removing all its bottlenecks. The Nespak team also told the officials that they would work out a plan to complete the project by making some implementable design and alignment changes.

Earlier, the chief minister led the federal minister and Governor Ismail to Keenjhar Lake, around 30 kilometres left of Thatta city, at the intake point of the K-IV project by helicopter. They visited the site of the mouth of the project to inspect the canal, conduits and bridges constructed so far. They were also briefed by FWO engineers during the visit.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd, 2019.