SC hear petition on Winder Dam Project in Balochistan

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday heard a petition of Balochistan government against the high court decision on auction of Winder Dam contract, ARY News reported.

Balochistan High Court had ordered for an open auction of awarding the construction project of the dam.

The provincial government had challenged the high court decision in the apex court and a division bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam heard the case.

The court granted permission to a private construction company to hire advocate for the case and adjourned the hearing till tomorrow.

The company had pleaded for a four-week time to arrange an advocate for pleading its case.

Justice Mushir Aliam said that the national importance project could not be halted as the delay would also enhance the costs of the project.

“The delay in the project could soar the cost from 10 billions to 50 bn rupees,” Justice Qazi Amin remarked.

It is pertinent to mention here that for construction of Winder Dam, the tender of the project was opened on September 28, 2009 and awarded to a joint venture of Canadian and Pakistani consultants and contractors. Due to failure of the contractor to provide performance guarantee, the contract was cancelled.

An earth-core rock-fill dam will create gross storage of 36,484 acre-foot water to irrigate 10,000 acres of command area and its power house will generate 300 kW electricity.

Winder Dam project will now be constructed at the cost of Rs 15.230 billion. Federal government will finance the project entirely, which would be executed by Irrigation Department of Balochistan government.

The main objective of the project is to provide 50 cusecs assured irrigation water supply to irrigate 10,000 acres of agriculture land round the year with average cropping intensity of 82 percent.

Winder Dam located across Winder River about 100 km from Karachi in Lasbela District of Balochistan will also generate 0.3 megawatt electricity.