PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and a Chinese construction giant, Gezhouba Group, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the much-delayed execution of the Rs119 billion worth of Chashma Right Bank Canal project.

Mohammad Iqbal Khalil, director (small dams) at the KP Irrigation department told Dawn that the government would strive to secure funding for the crucial five-year project after the signing of the MoU.

He said the CRBC lift-cum-gravity project was poised to irrigate thousands of acres of land in the southern Dera Ismail Khan district. Mr Khalil said they were also striving to include the project in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) portfolio.

Official says efforts on for inclusion of Rs119bn initiative in CPEC project

He said as it was an irrigation project and that the companies couldn’t invest money in it and recover their investment. The official said though the project was a part of Public Sector Development Programme, the federal government had yet to issue project approval. “It should have been completed years ago,” he said.

The MoU signing ceremony took place at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat on Sunday, where Chief Minister Pervez Khattak was also in attendance. Irrigation secretary Tariq Rasheed and CGGC deputy manager Liu Yang signed the MoU. A statement issued here said under the agreement, the mega irrigation project would be completed with mutual cooperation under the government-to-government framework.

“A formal agreement will be made after final shape is given to the required details and needs in this respect,” it said, adding that both parties desired to bring the project under the umbrella of the CPEC and agreed to make mutual efforts for the purpose.

Gezhouba is an international construction giant, which has built the world biggest ‘Three Gorges’ hydroelectric dam in the Hubei province of China. The CRBC, a lift-cum-gravity project, will provide perennial irrigation discharge of 73.98 cumecs (cubic meter per second) to irrigate 115,846 hectares of land in DI Khan district.

Earlier in April this year, the KP government had also showcased the project at its CPEC Investment Roadshow in Beijing. The project will begin from Chashma barrage and feeder channel and that it will run parallel to the existing Chashma Right Bank Gravity Canal up to 59 kilometers, where a pumping station will be installed.

The overall pumping capacity will be 71.72 cusecs of water and that it will be lifted to 19.50 meters for irrigating the land situated at higher elevation on the right side of the existing CRBC Gravity Canal up to the border line of Punjab.

The length of the main canal will be 111.25 kilometers and the distributaries network 410 kilometers. Besides, 26 floods carrier channels will also be constructed having a total length of 306 kilometers. The estimated cost of the project is said to be Rs119.6 billion, while it will be executed in around five year.

Earlier in March 2016, the federal and KP governments had signed another MoU wherein both sides had agreed on the cost sharing for the irrigation project.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2017