Sindh CM inaugurates Kalidas Dam in Nagarparkar

SUKKUR: Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday inaugurated the Kalidas Dam in Nagarparkar with storage capacity of 1,012.3 acre feet. It was constructed at the cost of Rs333 million.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony, Murad Ali Shah said the Kalidas Dam has been constructed one kilometre away from Nagarparkar and the current water level was 13 feet in the small dam. The dam has storage capacity up to 1,012.3 acre feet and its height is 13 feet. It was constructed in the catchment area of Karoonjhar Mountains, which are feasible for small dams.

CM Shah said that the construction of 23 small dams had been completed after the Sindh government started the project of 42 small dams, whereas, the plan for building 26 more dams was finalized. “After the construction of 34 dams, approximately 80,000 acres of land will be made fertile.”

The chief minister said the people of Nagarparkar and its suburban villages will get clean drinking water after the construction of Kalidas Dam. The mountainous region of Karoonjhar is 400 square kilometre wide and it receives an average of 13-inch rain during the monsoon season, which provides a total of 111,000 acre feet water. Kalidas Dam will reduce the water scarcity in the Nagarparkar area, said Shah. He said that nearly 50 villages were getting water from 23 dams and 85,000 more acres of land will be made fertile and populated after the construction of 42 small dams this year. Murad Ali Shah thanked the local citizens for expressing confidence in the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the general election. He said that before 2002, no PPP candidate was elected from Thar, but later in the 2002 general election, the people of Thar exercised their democratic right of vote and elected PPP candidates and now Thar was a stronghold of the PPP.

He said that wheat procurement target has been met by the Sindh government while the other three provinces had not met their targets. He said that flour prices rose due to incompetence of the PTI government. Shah said that local residents have the first right to utilize coal resources of Tharparkar.