ISLAMABAD, Jan 18: Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Wednesday said that the feasibility study of Bhasha dam had been completed while work on geological investigation was continuing apace.

“A 300-metre-long tunnel of Bhasha dam has been completed while work on another similar tunnel is continuing for conducting geological investigations,” he said in a rejoinder to a statement of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader and former NWFP chief minister Pir Sabir Shah that the feasibility study of the dam would take several years to complete.

Sheikh Rashid, speaking at a seminar on the need of reservoirs, said the government was all out for carrying out the construction of all the major reservoirs and ready to provide every assurance to those opposing the dams.

He said the decision on the subject had been reached after hectic and marathon sessions of technical experts.

He pointed out that the vested interest had allowed Independent Power Producers to operate which had been generating power by using oil. In recent years, he said the prices of oil had escalated and had subsequently affected the power tariff.

The minister said that all the five major dams would be completed by 2016.

Responding to an opposition’s charge, Sheikh Rashid said that President Pervez Musharraf’s speech on dams delivered on Tuesday had been prepared well ahead of the earthquake but was delayed for certain reasons. He said the country’s progress was co-related to the progress in Balochistan. He warned that no hurdle on the way to progress would be tolerated and all those elements posing a threat would be dealt with accordingly.

He said a vast majority in the province was in the favour of development and progress but a handful of sardars in a specific part of Balochistan had been opposing it.—APP