PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has completed construction of 56 small dams at a cost of Rs26.7 billion having a storage capacity of 281,410 acre feet.

A statement issued here on Wednesday that read that 0.3 million acres of agricultural land would be irrigated by those dams. It added that 30 more small dams would be completed soon at a cost of Rs43.6 billion.

The statement said that a meeting of agriculture department held here with Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur in the chair was briefed on small dam projectsbeingexecutedin the province.

The meeting was also attended by Minister for Irrigation Agibullah Khan, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Amjad Ali Khan, Special Secretary to Chief Minister Waqar Ali Khan, Irrigation Secretary Tahir Orakzai and other relevant officials.

It said that 18 dam projects were for settled and 12 for tribal districts. It said that 14 small dam projects were in final stages and would be completed in the current year. These include Khattak Banda Dam in Kohat, Makh Banda and Latambar dams in Karak, Jaroba Dam in Nowshera and Pezu Dam in Lakki Marwat. It added that 14 small dams could store 46,400 acres feet of water and would irrigate 34,000 acres of land.

During the meeting, Mr Gandapur directed relevant officials to accelerate work on small dams. He ordered treasury department to release required funds for the projects.

He said that the completed dams should be made functional as delay would not be tolerated. He said that priorities should be identified for next stages of underconstruction small dams since the projects were important for food security of the province.

The chief minister said that schedule of new expenditures should be approved for those small dams on which 90 per cent of construction work was completed and feasibility studies should be carried out for small dams at suitable places in the province.

He said that capabilities of small dams` directorate should be enhanced to timely complete the projects. He ordered appointment of two more directors and other staffat the directorate.

`There is a need of more focused approach for speedy completion of small dams. Irrigation and agriculture are priorities of provincial government. The government is spending a huge amount which should timely bear fruit,` said the chief minister.