Govt to construct Bara multipurpose dam in FATA

[LahoreEstate]

ISLAMABAD: To bring the area of tribal belt at par with other developed areas of the country, the government has to construct Bara multipurpose dam at the cost of Rs 14.208 billion.

The dam is situated across the Bara River in Khyber Agency and the government approved it in ECNEC meeting held a few days ago. “The project will help expose the militancy stricken people to sigh of relief and durable and sustainable development and prosperity.” The sponsoring agency of the project will be Ministry of Water and Power while the executing agency will be the WAPDA.

It would help in ensuring the irrigation of 41,729 acres of land and would generate 5.8MW much-needed electricity.

The said dam was to be constructed under President’s initiative for water and agriculture sector under which 32 small dams would be constructed.

It is pertinent to mention that for 32 small dams in Pakistan, China will extend $700 million on long-term credit and government of Pakistan will contribute $300 million.

However, the type of the proposed dam was an earth core fill dam having height of 92 meters and crest length of 450 meters. The dead storage capacity of the dam was 22,929 acres feet of water live storage was 62,434 acres feet.

The official said that a powerhouse with design power generation capacity of 38.1 Giga watt hour would also be constructed. The overall life of the dam has been estimated to be about 100 years.

However about 50 percent of the live storage would be lost in about 60 years. This meant that the useful design life of the dam was 50 years.

“This dam with live storage capacity of 62, 434 acre feet of water will help bring the prosperity in the FATA and adjacent area of Peshawar as it will provide assured irrigation water supply to 41, 729 acres of agriculture land.” This means that the said dam will help increase the cropping intensity from 99.1 percent to 161 percent.

The official said that the dam would also provide 20 million gallons of water per day, in addition to 10 cusecs regular water supply to Peshawar cantonment and 6 cusecs of regular water supply to local factories in Tehsil Bara.

Later on two power houses of 5.8MW of electricity will be constructed also that will ensure the electricity for the local dwellers at cheaper rates. In addition, the dam will also ensure the production of 155 tonnes of fish that will help turn the life of local into prosperous zone.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2009_pg5_7