SWABI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan will inaugurate work on Ulta Dam in the mountainous Gadoon Amazai region here on Feb 25.

Sources in the ruling party told Dawn on Sunday that a few days back the date of the ground breaking of the dam was finalised with the party chief inaugurating it.

The visit of Imran Khan to Gadoon Amazai would be his first ever and he is expected to be accompanied of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and other leaders of the party, said the sources, adding the Utla Dam was expected to irrigate 48,000 kanal of arid lands in Utla and its suburbs.

It is to mention here that work on construction of Kundal Dam is near completion and will irrigate over 13,000 acres of land.

The chief minister inaugurated construction of Bada Dam on Feb 2. The project will cost Rs1.5 billion and irrigate over 3,000 acres of land.

Sources said the three dams in Gadoon Amazai would provide enough water for irrigation and help control the flood menace, besides meeting the increasing domestic water needs of the locals.

Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser has said that with the construction of Utla Dam the water scarcity problem of the region would be resolved.

Speaking at a meeting at Murghuz on Sunday, he said the dam would be completed in two or three years.

“The previous governments had dodged the locals and failed to take interest in construction of power projects,” he said.

“We are proud of our contribution to Gadoon people.”

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2018