ISLAMABAD – President Asif Zardari on Friday advised the Ministry of Water and Power and the provincial governments to speed up work on the construction of new dams to meet the growing requirements of irrigation and drinking water and empower women by free distribution of state lands among them in the proposed dams’ areas.
The president said this during a briefing given to him by WAPDA Chairman Shakil Durrani on the construction of small and medium dams. The meeting reviewed the progress on Darawat and Nai Gaj dams in Sindh and Naulong, Winder and Hingol dam projects in Balochistan.
He also reviewed progress on mega development projects in Sindh and Balochistan, rehabilitation of bunds in the flood-affected areas and extraction of oil and gas from the abandoned wells. Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Magsi, ministers Syed Naveed Qamar, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Nadeem-ul-Haq, provincial ministers, relevant experts and senior officials also attended the meeting.
During the presentation on utilisation of gas from new discoveries and abandoned gas fields, the president advised the federal government to ensure provision of gas to the surrounding villages within 5 kms of all the gas fields. Progress on an earlier directive for reactivation of the abandoned gas fields in Sindh to improve the much-needed energy supplies was also reviewed.
Minister for Petroleum Syed Naveed Qamar gave the presentation on reactivating the abandoned gas fields. The president, at a meeting in Karachi early this month, had had directed the authorities to plan extraction of oil and gas from the abandoned and set up power plants for selected industrial zones.
On the progress made on Zulfikarabad city project, the meeting was informed that 1.3 million acres of land had been made available for four tehsils of the new city.
