Conspiracies against dam’s construction to be foiled: Faisal Vawda

ISLAMABAD (92 News) - Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda said on Monday that Opposition Leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif presented wrong facts on Mohmand dam and misguided the nation. Addressing to the floor of National Assembly, Faisal Vawda responded the allegations of Shehbaz Sharif about bidding process of dam. He said the opposition parties are hatching a conspiracy against the dam and spreading a wrong narrative Expressing anger over opposition leader’s remarks about Mohmand Dam, he vowed that all conspiracies against the construction of dam will be foiled. “If they (opposition parties) cannot understand English, we can provide Pepra rules’ copy in Urdu language,” he mentioned. While reacting on opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif’s walk out of the National Assembly, Vawda said he has no courage to listen the truth. He maintained that the people, who walked out from NA today, they have to quit the country tomorrow. The minister said that no dam was built in the country for the last 60 years, leading to pressure on existing water resources. He also said if something is advertised openly, it cannot be categorized as single bidding. He said 28 companies bought the bidding documents, out of which five took part in the bidding process. Faisal Vawda said in November 2017, the tenders for the project were called in and documents were submitted in June last year. He said at that time there was not government of the PTI. He said PTI government and its functionaries had no role in that whole process. Faisal Vawda said his government has already taken a discount of 6 billion rupees on the construction costs from the bidder. He also said the PTI government under Prime Minister Imran Khan is going to resolve all the issues which will lead to political demise of the opposition. To a question, the water resources minister said informed the House that 32,139 acres of land has been acquired for Diamer Bhasha Dam which is 86% of the total land to be acquired. He said 31,977 acres has been acquired in Gilgit Baltistan and 162 acres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said the government through its executing agency WAPDA has completed Mangla Dam Raising, Gomal Zam Dam, Satpara Dam and Darawat Dam to store water with a total storage capacity of 3.91 Million Acre Feet. He said Diamer Bhasha Dam, Mohmand Dam, Kurram Tangi Dam and Nai Gaj Dam are at implementation stage.