Daily Times

Sir: While going through the age old debate over Kalabagh Dam, I had the idea that perhaps it could be built easily if all the people of Pakistan joined hands and committed to seeing this project completed.

Consequently, I reached out to my many friends and acquaintances on both my e-mailing list and my phone contacts to gauge their response to this idea as well. I was surprised by the overwhelming positive response I received from everyone and many even pledged to donate money to the project if required, with one particular patron pledging over a million rupees.

Even though I am incredibly thankful for the response I received, it is too early to pledge any money to the cause till we can hire the relevant experts and accountants to gauge the price for this endeavour. However, even before that, what is absolutely essential to get the ball rolling is an experienced and competent project manager.

We will also require consultants for environmental and habitat relocation impact studies, land acquisition, resettling affected habitat and fund raising and management. Further experts will be required to check feasibility on civil work, power plants, dams and tunnels under construction, as well as for security and administrative duties. Finally, a professional will be required to work with the relevant government authorities on Kalabagh Dam that already exist and have completed some initial work.

The next step would involve setting up different companies, each in charge of a specific job related to the project. These could include fund collection and management, execution of civil works, construction of power plants, and the provision of security and transport for the many employees working on Kalabagh Dam.

International experts will also need to be consulted and contractors for procurement and construction will need to be hired as well. We will further require banks, chartered accountants, fund managers, media personnel for public relations, as well as marketing managers to spread the word about this project and encourage people to send in as many donations as they possibly can.

However, before we can dive head first into this venture, we need to make the proper background checks over every aspect of this project. We need to make sure that a suitable number of people support this initiative and are willing to support it. We need to determine what the scope of their support will be, whether it’s monetary or if they can provide us with a specific skill set etc. If we can somehow manage to achieve all of this, the dream of Kalabagh might finally turn into a reality after all.

COL (R) SYED RIAZ JAFRI

Rawalpindi

Published in Daily Times, June 20^th 2018.