PERVAIZ AWAN -  Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) has sought no objection certificate (NOC) from the Punjab government to resell the spoil bank land of Ghazi Barotha Hydropower Project to their original owners.

According to the details, Ghazi Barotha Hydropower Project is one of the most important and vital hydropower projects in the existing energy crises situation of the country.

The project has the capability to contribute 1,450 MW electricity to the national grid annually without sustaining any effect of less or low water level in the water reservoir due to its designing.  The project, with a generation capacity of 1,450 MW and an average energy output of 6,600 GW, is located on the Indus River downstream of Tarbela Dam and it was completed during the fiscal year 2003-2004.

This is a major run of river and environmentally sustainable project, designed to meet the acute shortage of peak power demand in the country.

Ghazi Barotha Hydropower Project is spread in two provinces from Ghazi (KP) to Barotha, (Punjab) at more than 52 km area.

The 52-kilometer long power channel had acquired a huge quantity of extra land along with the both side of the power channel for dumping the excavated material and mud of power channel, which includes some 2,500 kanal of land from KP and more than 12,000 kanal from Attock area of Punjab.

The resettlement action plan was specially prepared by the Ghazi Barotha authority on the recommendation the World Bank, the loaning agency, and with the permission of the Pakistan government. According to the plan, Wapda had to re-sale the spoil banks land back to its original owners after completion of the project.

After the completion of Ghazi Barotha Project during the financial year, 2003-04 Wapda had already re-sold almost all land exist in the province of KP to their original land owners whereas re-sale of spoil banks in the Punjab area was still pending due to non-issuance of NOC from the Punjab government.

Earlier, Wapda had asked the Punjab government and had also held a series of meetings with the Punjab official regarding the issuance of NOC for re-sale of the spoil Bank but remained the matter inconclusive so for.

Later when the matter was brought in to the notice of existing Chairman Wapda Lt: General (R) Muzamil Hussain after taking over his charge as Wapda Chief some while back, he took a serious notice of the matter and started his efforts for resolving the lonely outstanding issue on the highest level.

The Chairman Wapda Lt: General (R) Muzamil Hussain had now sent again a letter to the Chief Secretary Punjab for the issuance of NOC while describing all situation and history of the case.

The Wapda chairman also explained, in his letter, that maintenance and complete rehabilitation of the spoil bank land which was spread over 40 kilometre in the Attock area of Punjab had become difficult for the project authority due to lack of funds and other resources.

It was further explained in the letter that original owners of the spoil land had become aggravated and were agitating over the delay in re-sale process as the KP government had issued NOC for re-sale of the spoil bank land in 2006.

The letter further read all most all land in KP province had been re-soled to their original owners whereas matter for re-sale of spoil, situated in the Punjab area, was delaying due to non-issuance of the NOC.

Wapda would get an amount of more than 500 million rupees from the re-sale of the spoil bank land existing in the Punjab area.