Panel seeks Rs340m for hydropower project

Cost of Kurram Tangi project has already shot up due to delays.

ISLAMABAD:

A parliamentary panel has pressed the finance ministry and the Planning Commission to immediately arrange Rs340 million for the 83.4-megawatt Kurram Tangi dam and power project.

The Senate standing committee on water and power, which met here on Thursday with Senator Zahid Khan in the chair, reviewed the progress on the Kurram Tangi project, located in the most sensitive area of the tribal belt of North Waziristan.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) had approved the project at a cost of Rs17.205 billion but due to delay the cost went up to Rs59.561 billion.

A special committee, headed by Water and Power Secretary Imtiaz Qazi, also failed to implement the parliamentary panel’s decision to arrange maximum funds for the project by the end of January.

The panel expressed serious concern over failure of the ministries concerned to comply with its directives given in the previous meeting held on January 19.

According to the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), after completion of this hydropower project, more than 365,000 acres of agricultural land in the surrounding area including Bannu and adjacent districts will be irrigated. In addition to this, 65,000 acres in North Waziristan will also be irrigated.

Though the government has earmarked Rs100 million for the project in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for 2011-12, which has also been released, Wapda needs more money to initiate the project on a fast-track basis.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2012.