Islamabad: Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan is expected to lay down the foundation stone for the 115-kilometre-long Jalalpur Sharif Irrigation Project (JIP) — first proposed over 122 years ago, during the British Raj — today (Thursday), a news source reported. As per details, the premier is scheduled to attend the inauguration ceremony in Jhelum – accompanied by Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Usman Buzdar, Minister for Science & Technology Fawad Chaudhry, and senior Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Khan Tareen.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is funding the project with a loan worth PKR 32.7 billion. The initiative comprises a new non-perennial irrigation system for enhancing the agricultural produce in Pindadan Khan and Khaushab areas – having been under consideration since 1930. PTI leader Nazar Gondal said that the canal’s development was first proposed in 1898 (122 years ago) during the British rule.
The proposed canal will begin from the left bank of Rasul Barrage and provide 1,350 cusecs of water for irrigation. It will also pass from under the Lahore-Islamabad (M2) Motorway – for which the authorities concerned have already set up a culvert. Moreover, the JIP canal will have a distribution system of 23 distributary channels, over 780 hydraulic structures, and 10 minor canals.
