By Ali Imran
RAWALPINDI: Commissioner Rawalpindi Capt (Retd) Muhammad Mehmood on Wednesday said that 15 percent construction work of Dadocha Dam has been completed in only two and half months.
Chairing a meeting held here to review progress on Dadocha dam the commissioner said, the construction work on the project was launched in January 2021 and was being completed on fast track. He said, the dam would be completed in two and half year period at a cost of Rs 6492 million. The administration had acquired 16,194 kanals and 14 marlas land for the project.
He said that excavation work of the spillway and perennial pipe flow was underway. The Commissioner said, Dadocha dam is a project of public interest and its construction was inevitable in view of the increasing water shortage situation in Rawalpindi city. The Commissioner was informed that heavy missionary was being used for the construction work. Muhammad Mehmood said, the Dadocha dam project was conceived in 2002 but its construction work could not be started till December 2020.
The incumbent Punjab government of Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) took the project seriously and addressed its administrative and technical issues on priority basis and kicked off the construction work on this important project of the region. He informed that water requirement of Rawalpindi city would be 100 million gallons per day in 2030.
He said the government had started Daducha and Chahan dams to end the water shortage, both for drinking and agriculture purposes, in the Potohar region.
He said, water table in the Potohar region was decreasing fast and construction of dams was a dire need of the hour.
The total storage capacity of the dam would be 60,000 acre feet, dead level storage capacity is 15,000 acre feet while live storage capacity is 45,000 acre feet. The water inflow to the dam will be 77,000 cusecs while the outflow is estimated at 42,000 cusecs.
The meeting was attended by Chief Engineer Potohar Moeen Qureshi, Additional Deputy Commissioner Revenue, Capt(R) Muhammad Shoaib, Xen Small Dams, Rawalpindi Maqbool Ahmed.
