LAHORE: A three-member delegation of French development agency - Agence Francaise de Development (AFD), headed by Country Director Nicolas Fomage visited Munda Dam project site on Monday.
The site is located in Mohmand Agency of the Federally Administered Area (FATA).
Speaking on the occasion, the AFD Country Director said that Munda Dam Project would go a long way for socio-economic uplift of the country, particularly Mohmand Agency and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. He said that AFD was exploring ways to join the project and become a partner.
The delegation also exchanged views with the local tribesmen, who hosted the guests at the site.
Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) Project General Manager (North) Rashid Ali Khan Bangash, Planning and Design General Manager Irshad Ahmad, Mohmand Agency political agent Adil Siddiq accompanied Fomage during the visit.
AFD has shown interest in providing financial assistance for design as well as construction of the project, and the case was forwarded to AFD Board of Directors for formal approval.
Wapda has prioritised Munda Dam construction in the wake of devastation caused by recent floods in the country. Around Rs611.5 million worth consultancy agreement for preparation of detailed engineering design and tender documents was signed recently and after the completion of detailed engineering design in two years time, the project will enter its construction phase.
Munda Dam will be a multipurpose project that would help control floods, ensure availability of water for agriculture and provide low-cost hydel electricity.
The project, on completion, will store 1.29 million acre feet of water and generate 740 megawatt hydropower, thus contributing 2400 million units of low-cost electricity to the national grid annually.
Most importantly, the project is vital to protect Charsadda and Nowshera from floods. The dam will store 300 million cubic meter water of River Swat, restricting its flow to River Kabul.
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I hope that this dam is contructed as soon as possible to help protect against floods.
I thought Munda Dam will be completed by the end of 2012. These arrangements are taking place for last 10 years. Surely incompetent and non visionary Regime is ruling Pakistan for at least a decade.