Final negotiations are taking place about the appointment of a consultant for an irrigation and land conservation project in North West Frontier Province. A decision will be made by early November.

A consortium of the UK's Binnie & Partners, Germany's Lahmeyer, and the local National Development Corporation and BAK is the sole bidder for the consultancy contract. The group did the feasibility study for the $160 million project, which will be carried out in two phases. The design phase is scheduled for 1995-1996, with implementation due to take place in 1997-2001.

The project involves building a canal from the Tarbela dam reservoir to irrigate 40,300 hectares. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing $127.6 million towards the cost of the scheme. The remaining $32.4 million will be sourced locally (MEED 2:9:94).