QUETTA: PC-1 of the second phase of the Kachhi Canal Project would be approved soon to extend the project by another 58 kilometres.
Phase 1 of the Kachhi canal project would be completed next month as the development work of the project is near its completion, an official source said.
Phase 1 of the Kachhi Canal consisted of 363 kilometres in length and would be irrigated 103,000 acres of barren land in the Dera Bugti and adjoining areas.
Under the expansion works, the existing main canal would be further extended by another 40 kilometres in the third phase of the project.
This project would irrigate a total area of ??175000 acres in Dera Bugti, Naseerabad, Jhal Magsi, Kachchi districts and other areas.
The 500 kilometres long canal, with a discharge capacity of 6000 cusecs water, which takes off from Taunsa Barrage in Muzaffargarh district of Punjab enters Balochistan via Dera Bugti district.
Kachhi Canal is a vital project to alleviate poverty and eradicate extremism in remote and backward areas of Balochistan by developing irrigated agriculture and an agro-based economy in the province.
It is a good sign for the province that the land being cultivated in Sui and adjacent areas of the Dera Bugti district through the existing Kachhi Canal has brought a phenomenal change in the livelihood of the locals.