ISLAMABAD: The Punjab government on Tuesday rejected the Bahria Town’s offer to build the Dadocha Dam, saying it would construct the dam itself.
The Punjab government rejected Bahria Town’s offer during the hearing of a case in the Supreme Court regarding construction of Dadocha Dam.
A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Azmat Saeed and comprising Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, heard the case.
During the course of proceedings, the representatives of the Punjab Irrigation Department said that the dam will be built by the government itself and that construction will be completed by December 2021.
The secretary of the Irrigation Department said that the government’s experts had looked into Bahria Town’s offer in detail. Technical experts raised a total of 108 questions on Bahria Town’s proposal, he added.
He said that the government will carry out the court’s order on the matter in letter and spirit. He reiterated that the dam would be built within two and a half years.
The bench disposed of the case after the government’s assurance that the dam would be built in the stipulated time.
It may be mentioned that on August 4, 2015, the apex court in a suo motu case, had directed the Punjab government to construct the dam at the originally proposed site.
Soon after these directives, the provincial government had banned the sale and purchase of land in the area and later allocated funds for the construction of the Dam in its annual development plan for 2017-18.
On the SC’s directives, the Punjab government in 2017 initiated the process to construct the dam at a cost of Rs 7 billion to overcome the water shortage in Rawalpindi.