Rawalpindi Water and Sanitation Agency has sought an additional amount of Rs804 million from the Punjab caretaker government for land acquisition purposes of the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded Chahan Dam Water Supply Project.
According to official sources, the Punjab government has already released Rs650 million for the same purpose.
The estimated cost of the ADB-funded project is around Rs22 billion, with over Rs1.4 billion allocated for land acquisition. Once the ADB releases the funds, the amount spent on land acquisition will be transferred back to the Punjab government.
The Chahan Dam Water Supply Project aims to provide a daily supply of 12 million gallons of water to the garrison city. Under the fast-track policy, work on the project will commence by the end of this year.
Originally planned to deliver 6 million gallons of water per day, the project has been scaled up to provide 12 million gallons of water per day to densely populated local councils of Rawalpindi. Additionally, it will establish a reliable water supply system for the six Union Councils of Lakhan, Girja 1, Girja 2, Chak Jalal Din, Mohri Ghazan, and Dhamiyal.
The second project involves laying a new pipeline from the Rawal Dam Treatment Plant to Rawalpindi, enabling an additional supply of five million gallons of water per day. This will increase the daily water supply from Rawal Dam to Rawalpindi to 28 million gallons, eliminating the need to operate 80 to 90 tube wells owned by the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA). This will also save the civic agency millions of rupees annually.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 5th, 2023.
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