With the Kohat Tunnel and Ghazi Barotha coming online in 2003 with this project, credit should be given to Musharraf’s govt for pushing through projects in areas that really needed to be developed:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_20-11-2002_pg3_6
POETIC LICENCE: Major water schemes in NWFP nearing completion
Kaleem Omar
The Pehur high level canal project, located in the Swabi, Buner, Mardan and Nowshera districts of the NWFP, will improve the irrigation and drainage infrastructure of about 40,900 hectares of land
Pakistan has been going through a drought cycle since 1997, with the winter months seeing a water crisis due to low rainfall and the low flow of water in the Indus and other rivers. The coming winter is likely to be no different. But the situation should ease somewhat by next year in at least one of the country’s four provinces, after the completion of three major surface-water development projects in the NWFP: the Pehur high level canal, the Swabi salinity control and reclamation project (SCARP), and the Chashma right bank canal project stage III.
The Pehur high level canal project, located in the Swabi, Buner, Mardan and Nowshera districts of the NWFP, will improve the irrigation and drainage infrastructure of about 40,900 hectares of land including new irrigation of 5,100 hectares. Surface and sub-surface drainage in the project area will also be upgraded. As a result of increase in irrigation supplies, the Ballar area of about 4,000 hectares, upstream of the Swabi SCARP, would also receive water supplies.
The whole area of 79,000 hectares under the command of the Swabi SCARP would benefit from improvement in water supplies. After the project is completed, the irrigation of about 16,000 hectares of land through lift-irrigation schemes in both these command areas would be possible.
The PC-1 proforma for the project, based on September 1993 prices, was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) in May 1994, with a total project cost of Rs 4,600 million. In June 1994 the Asian Development Bank (ADB) sanctioned a loan of $ 127.6 million for the project, equivalent to about 83 per cent of the project cost. The rest of the funding was to come from the NWFP government in local currency.
In September 1994 the NWFP government engaged WAPDA as the implementation agency for the project. WAPDA appointed project consultants in December 1994. The project period covered 83 months, divided into two phases, with some overlap between the two phases.
Based on actual tenders for major civil works and updated costs of other items, the PC-1 was revised on the basis of June 1997 prices. The revised PC-1 for Rs 6,521 million was submitted to the federal Planning Commission in December 1998 and approved by ECNEC for Rs 6,459 million on May 14, 1999.
Design phase activities were initiated by the project consultants in December 1994 and completed on schedule in June 1997. However, the construction phase did not begin on schedule due to delays in the awarding of the main civil works contract. The construction phase was formally launched in June 1998. The contract for the main canal and tunnels was awarded in December 1998.
The Swabi SCARP, which is also being implemented by WAPDA on behalf of the federal government and the NWFP government, includes the remodeling of 457 km of irrigation channels, repair of the Banton tunnel and construction of a parallel new tunnel, remodeling of the Amandara headworks, remodeling of 530 km of surface drains, installation of tiled drains in 28,329 hectares of land, and the construction of embankments to prevent water spilling over the natural drainage channels in 335,901 hectares of land.
The project covers 113,720 hectares of pastureland and 84,622 hectares of canal command area in the Mardan, Charsadda and Swabi districts and the Malakand Agency of the NWFP. About 74,700 hectares of the project area is under the command of the Upper Swat Canal and 5,382 hectares receives irrigation water from the Kalpani distributary of the Lower Swat Canal.
The project was approved by the federal government in May 1990 at an estimated cost of Rs 3,620 million, including a foreign exchange component of Rs 1.086 million, for completion in 10 years. The ADB has provided a soft loan of $ 118 million to meet the cost of consultancy services, investigation works, and a major portion of the irrigation and drainage components of the project. The Swiss Development Corporation has given a grant of $ 17 million to meet the cost of agriculture extension services and research activities. The NWFP government has provided bridge financing for the first three years of project implementation.
Construction work on the project has been divided into 19 contracts, of which 17 have been completed and handed over to the Irrigation Department of the NWFP government.
The revised cost of the Swabi SCARP project works out to Rs 6,273 million, with a foreign exchange component of Rs 1,481 million. The revised cost was approved by ECNEC on November 7, 1998.
The Chashma right bank canal irrigation project (CRBIP) commands a total area of nearly 231,000 hectares of land on the right bank of the River Indus in the NWFP and Punjab. The 272 km-long canal, with a discharge capacity of 138 cubic metres of water per second (cumecs) at its head, off-takes from the right bank of the Chashma Barrage and extends southward up to Taunsa Barrage on the Indus.
Plans called for the project to be constructed in three stages. Stages I and II have been completed, while Stage III is under construction.
CRBC Stage I is 83.2 km long. Stage I commands 60,705 hectares of land, for which the water allocation is 34.7 cumecs. Stage II is 38.4 km long. It commands an area of 38,041 acres of land. The water discharge allocation is 22.04 cumecs.
Stage III of the Chashma right bank canal irrigation project — the stage currently under construction — is 150.4 km long. It commands an area of 131,932 hectares of land, of which 44,517 hectares is in the Dera Ismail Khan district of the NWFP and 87,415 hectares is in the Dera Ghazi Khan district of Punjab. The water discharge allocation is 80.8 cumecs, including 29.8 cumecs for the NWFP and 50.94 cumecs for Punjab.
