ISLAMABAD: The World Bank has agreed to grant funds to the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) for a project for the conduction of water from the Indus River via the Tarbela Water to Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Mayor Anser Aziz and Chief Metropolitan Officer (CMO) Asad Mehboob Kayani met with World Bank officials a few days ago and received a positive response.

CMO Kayani said that the World Bank of ficials had asked the MCI to send its proposal through the Economic Affairs Division for funds of about $7 million for the project.

He said the funds will be used for completing the initial work on the project, the total cost of which is around Rs50 billion. Meanwhile, he said, MCI is also holding talks with a Chinese company.

`Over the next few days, we will decide which option to avail. But we have to take some steps for starting the project because it will help overcome the water scarcity problem in Islamabad,` he said.

The shortage of water, especially that of drinking water, is one of the nigger problems of Islamabad`s residents.

The water conduction project was designed to conduct 655 million gallon of water per day by 2050 in three phases. A Reporter