KARACHI: The ground-breaking ceremony for Panjwani Hisaar Water Institute was held at the NED University for Engineering and Technology on Friday.

The project is expected to be completed within two years.

`The project will be multidisciplinary and aims to serve as a research institute on all key issues relating to water, including its quality, conservation and engineering,` Vice Chancellor Prof Sarosh Lodi told Dawn after the ceremony.

The university also planned to hold short courses at the institute, part ofthe civil engineering department, where students would also be awarded degrees.The project, he said, was estimated to cost Rs400m. `The Panjwani Trust Foundation (PTF) has pledged Rs50m while the Hisaar Foundation (HF) would also support the project. We have requested the chancellor to consider funding for the project under the Karachi Package,` he said.

Recalling how the university came into being, Prof Lodi said it seemed that history was repeating itself as the reason for establishing the university was also related to water.

It was in 1921 when the university started its journey as the Prince of Wales Engineering College, he recounted, adding that the purpose was to provide manpower for constructing Sukkur Barrage at that time. The college`s name was changed to NED College in 1924 after itreceived significant funding from the Dinshaw family.

`The college grew and became a university later on with government support,` he said and expressed the hope that the government would finance the project.

Earlier, at the ceremony, Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair, also the university chancellor, spoke about the challenges the country faced with respect to water and regretted that people generally were not aware of these issues.

`It`s a laudable step. The government will consider this project on priority basis under the Karachi Package,` he said.

Nadira Panjwani and Seemi Kamal, representing the PTF and the HF respectively, also spolce.