1.
CU Official opening board
0.05

2.
SV Officials seated including Mr Khattak, Power Minister in the centre.
0.10

3.
SV Audience seated
0.14

4.
SV Project Official addresses guests as they listen (2 shots)
0.24

5.
CU Mr Khattak speaking
0.29

6.
SV Workers seated on tractors
0.34

7.
GV Mr Khattak shovelling soil
0.46

8.
GV Villages and building beside dam (2 shots)
1.00

9.
SV Villagers gathered on high ground with belongings (3 shots)
1.10

10.
GV Flood water with village in background (2 shots)
1.20

11.
GV PAN Darband High School
1.28

12.
SV Village children
1.31

13.
SV Village elders discussing problems
1.39

14.
GV Villagers fleeing on boat
1.44



Initials BJB/0100 BJB/0120



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Pakistan's Tarbela Dam, which survived a near-disaster last year, is today one step nearer to completion with the installation of its transmission line last thursday (29 May).

The Federal Minister for Fuel, Power and Natural Resources, Mr. Yusuf Khattak, performed the ground-breaking ceremony of the 500-KV Tarbela-Lyallpur transmission line project.

The line, when completed in 1977, will become Asia's longest at 206 miles (332 km).

It is designed to carry power from Tarbela to Lyallpur and thence to primary loads stations. The power will be used to run industries and agricultural projects.

In August last year, when engineers opened a gate to one of the dam's hydro-electrical power tunnels, water from the vast lake burst through the tunnel at 140 miles an hour (205 km).

The worst was feared and nearby villages were evacuated of thousands of people. Danger from the artificial lake still lingers, and villagers are continuing to move away to safer areas.

Fortunately, the damage did not destroy the dam, which is being repaired at the hefty sum of 2,374 million rupees (about GBP105 million sterling).

The dam is being built with capital mainly from the Canadian International Development Agency, amounting to almost 2.25 billion dollars (almost GBP1,000 million sterling).