Farrukh Habib hopeful Karachi's K-IV water project will finish by Oct 2023

• Farrukh Habib hopeful for K-IV's completion by October 2023.
• Minister says project crucial to resolve 650 million gallons of water shortage Karachiites face regularly.
• Initiative to help purge the "tanker mafia" which has been exploiting Karachiites for the last several decades.

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib on Thursday expressed the hope that the Greater Karachi Water Supply scheme (K-IV) would be completed by October 2023.

Addressing the contract signing ceremony for hiring consultancy services of a foreign company for the project, he said K-IV was crucial to resolving water woes of Karachi’s dwellers that had been facing shortage of 650 million gallons of water on a regular basis.

He added that the initiative would help purge the "tanker mafia" which had been exploiting Karachiites for the last several decades.

Major water supply project for Karachi delayed till 2023: report

The minister said Prime Minister Imran Khan, under the Karachi transformation plan, had tasked the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) with the execution of the K-IV project.

“WAPDA has unchallenged [authority] as it has not only been maintaining and running the old dams, but also working on new [water] projects,” he stressed, while also pointing out the growing trust of foreign investors on the Authority.

Foreign investors have shown keen interest in its projects’ funding, he noted.

Chiding the Sindh government over the delay in project’s execution, Farrukh said the project had been in limbo for the last several years due to "incompetency, negligence and incapability" of the PPP leadership.

To a query, he said history bears witness as to how people-centric projects succumbed to the "corruption" of the PPP-led government in Sindh.

“In such a scenario, how can one expect the execution of such a huge project by the Sindh government?” he asked.

He said Prime Minister Imran Khan was striving to facilitate the people of Karachi with initiatives like the Karachi Transformation Plan.

The prime minister, he said, was a "visionary leader" who had stressed on the construction of new dams for future generations.

The minister said work on producing 10,000 megawatts of inexpensive electricity was underway, adding that such initiatives would be "strategic assets" for Pakistan.

He regretted that the government had to produce 45% electricity through imported fuel which was causing damage to the environment.

Farrukh said the past government committed "criminal negligence" by signing costly agreements for electricity generation.