Infrastructure development: New road, water supply projects for DG Khan

Rs290 million allocated for supplying clean drinking water to tribal areas of both districts.

DERA GHAZI KHAN:

The government has allocated Rs290 million for a project to provide clean drinking water to people of Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur.

Talking to reporters on Sunday, Political Assistant Shahid Mehboob said the government had started the Tribal Areas Development Project. “The water project is part of the annual development programme and work on it will start soon,” he said.

He said that a small dam would be constructed under the project. “A survey is being conducted in Wadoro-Suri area for building the dam,” Mehboob said.

“New underground water channels (karez) would be built to provide water to the tribal areas of the districts,” he said, adding that the feasibility study for the underground water channels would begin soon. He said that an office of the Tribal Development Authority had been set up at Fort Munro to help find fresh water sources. He said that drilling would start as soon as any such source was located.

Mehboob said that 80 per cent of the funds for the project would be provided under the community development programme. “The rest of the funds will be provided by affluent people of the area,” he said. He said that water storage tanks would also be constructed. “Eighty per cent of the development funds would be spent on tribal areas of Dera Ghazi Khan and 20 per cent in Rajanpur,” he said.

New roads

The government has also provided Rs280 million for the construction of six roads in the tribal areas of both districts, Shahid Mehboob said.

He said that four of the roads would be all-weather roads, while two would be jeep trails.

“The roads will be built in Tuman Leghari and Tuman Buzdar areas,” he said, adding that the tenders for the construction of the roads would be announced soon.

He said that the new roads would be built from Ronghan to Sartokh, Barthi to Thaiker, Raheem Kothi to Kharar Buzdar and from Gagan Thal to Gujri Thokh. “The jeep trails will be built from Dilana to Lakha and from Cement Factory Stop to Zinda Peer,” Mehboob said.

He said that after the completion of the projects, the access to tribal areas located in the Sulaiman Mountains would be improved. “People living in Tuman Buzdar would no longer have to travel to Balochistan to reach Dera Ghazi Khan city after the completion of the roads,” Mehboob said. He said that the number of tourists visiting Fort Munro had multiplied after the completion of a similar road project in the area last year.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2014.