Excelsior Correspondent
KATHUA, Oct 12: Secretary, Jal Shakti Department, M. Raju, today chaired a review meeting to discuss issues related to the prestigious Shahpur Kandi Dam Project.
Threadbare deliberations were held on the progress made under different construction components of the dam project including work on Ravi canal on J&K side from Shahpur Kandi Dam.
Chief Engineer Shahpur Kandi Dam Project S.K Saluja apprised the meeting that construction work of proposed structure on Punjab side is going on in full swing and work on J&K side including the canal work on River Ravi to be started at the earliest.
Regarding progress on land acquisition work, Secretary directed the Deputy Commissioner Kathua to expedite the acquisition process so that further course of action can be followed in a time bound manner. He asked the engineers and other concerned departments to establish close liaison and coordination with district administration to remove bottlenecks hampering progress of works.
Pertinently the prestigious Shahpur Kandi Project over River Ravi was envisaged to help both Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab by channelizing the water to irrigate about 5,000 hectare of land in Punjab and 32,173 hectare in Kathua and Samba areas of J&K. The project will also provide electricity generated from the project to the border districts of both Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir.
The meeting was attended by ADC Basohli Tilak Raj Thapa, ACR Davinder Paul, Chief Engineer I&FC/ RTIC Hamesh Manchanda, SE RTIC Ajay Gupta, SE Shahpur Kandi, J.P Singh, SE Hydraulic Sanjeev Malhotra, X-En SPKD Project Janak Sharma, Executive Engineers PWD Rajan Gupta, RTIC Sudesh Kumar, Irrigation Braham Jyoti, officers of Forest and Wildlife Department.