Water Policy likely to be approved soon: Tariq
By Adnan Rafique

ISLAMABAD—Minister for Water and Power, Tariq Hameed on Sunday said National Water Policy is likely to be approved by the caretaker cabinet asdraft has been sent for its approval.
“It will be my endeavour to pass the draft of the policy from present cabinet as the matter was pending since long, the minister said in an interview with newsmen. He said the same draft has been sent to the cabinet recommended earlier without any amendment as it was prepared covering as aspects.
He said construction work on Kalabagh Dam can becompleted within seven years if task of development work assigns to the concerned with consensus.
“Kalabagh is a not a technical issue but a politicalmatter and I wish it should be resolved,” the minister said replying to a question regarding delay in project.
He said the government will able to overcome thepower demand and supply gap by 2010 as within two tothree years capacity of generation and consumption willbe balanced.
He said the situation will improve from 2009 onwards after starting power production from eight power plants under Private Power Infrastructure Board (PPIB). He said 2,700MW additional power capacity will be added in coming three years after completion of these PPIB projects.
He said all mega power projects will be completed by2016 included Basha-Diamer, Kalabagh, Akora, Munda and Kurram-Tungi to further produce 9,000MW electricity in the country. He added electricity demand would also be met through small and medium power generation projects under public-private partnership.
Tariq Hameed said a comprehensive strategy is beingchalked out for utilization of coal in power generationto balance the supply and demand of the electricity. He added study on Kalabagh Dam has been completedwhile engineering work of Basha-Diamer Dam will becompleted by the end of 2008.
He said the contract award of the project is likelyin 2009 while deadline of 2016 has been fixed for its completion.
The minister said private sector will complete MundaDam while pending work of Khuram-Tungi will be startedwithin three months. He said WAPDA has planned to start new power plantat Guddu to improve additional power upto 800MW during 2008-09. He said Mangla raising project will be completed inJune next and its filling will be in next summer due to which capacity generation will increase estimated at180MW.
He said development work has been started on Jinnah hydel project at Jinnah Barrage by WAPDA togenerate 94MW electricity to be completed in 2010.
He said PPIB has been directed to remove bottlenecksin small hydel projects having capacity of 100MW to 200MW.
He said in order to overcome load-shedding problembesides starting effective management WAPDA will get one rental plant while two rental plants already inauguratedhaving total capacity of 286MW to reduce power shortage in the country.