A family trip to

Khanpur & Taxila

17th – 18th November 2017

By
Shaikh Muhammad Ali
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Prologue:

Before I embark on the journey of writing this article, I must open my heart out
and share that I am contemplating to visit one of the following places this year:

 A business and excursion trip to the historic cities of Tashkent, Samarkand

& Bukhara in Uzbekistan
 A family trip to Rumbur, Bamburet and Birir in Chitral
 A family excursion to Kalam, Matiltan, Ushu glacier, Mahodand Lake &
Gabral Lake in the Swat valley.

And trust me, it is so very difficult to choose among the three options above but
let’s see where do I end up going this summer; provided I save up enough money
in the next four months 

______________________________X____________________________

The last time we visited the Khanpur Dam was in December 2010 and I
wondered how life would have been inside the WAPDA guesthouse, which was
perched quietly at the top of the hill south of the Khanpur Lake.

On Monday 12th November, 2017; I logged onto the Internet to find as to how I
could get a booking done at the WAPDA guesthouse at Khanpur. Tried logging on
to the page of the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), which
routed me to their main office in Lahore. Through them, I found the number of
the Executive Engineer in Haripur who in turn gave me the number of the in-
charge of the guesthouse at Khanpur.

The gentleman I talked to was very polite and he referred me to a particular

website where I could download and fill a form so that my bookings could be
made for the guesthouse. I did as I was told and sent the filled form via fax to the
relevant office and the next day called to ask if my booking had been confirmed

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and indeed two rooms had been booked for my family for the night of 17th
November 2017 respectively. The rate per room was Rs. 2,400 per night.

Very excited, after reaching home from work; we leave the house at 4:40 p.m.
and stop by for Maghreb prayer next to a PSO pump somewhere around Sangjani
at 5:10 p.m. on the Grand Trunk (GT) road.

For my audience, here are the details of the Khanpur Dam as per the WAPDA
Webpage:

“The Khanpur Dam is a multi-purpose project aimed at supplying water for

irrigation as well as for municipal use. The project is located in District Haripur
of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at a distance of 50 km north of Islamabad. Khanpur
Dam is a 167 feet high earth and rock fill dam built on the Haro River, which is a
small tributary of the Indus River.

(The Left Bank of the Khanpur Dam)

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Khanpur Dam Project provides regulated supply of water for irrigation to the
adjoining area in District Haripur (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and Districts
Rawalpindi and Attock (Punjab). It also caters to the municipal water
requirements of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

The live storage of Khanpur Reservoir is 79,980 acre-feet. Water from Khanpur
Reservoir is released through two canals known as the Left Bank Canal (LBC) and
the Right Bank Canal (RBC). The RBC, which has a design discharge of 110 ft3/s
(cusecs), is meant only for irrigation whereas the LBC having a design discharge
of 440 ft3/s (cusecs), supplies water both for irrigation as well as municipal and
industrial purposes. The lengths of LBC and RBC are 18 km and 11 km
respectively. Both Canals were handed over to the Provincial Irrigation
Departments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab in 1985 and 1987 respectively.

The Left Bank Canal (LBC) at its tail end delivers water to the Sangjani Raw Water
Reservoir, which is controlled by the Capital Development Authority (CDA). From
CDA’s Sangjani Reservoir water is supplied, after treatment, to Islamabad and
Rawalpindi. Khanpur Dam Project was completed and made operational in
1984-85 at a cost of Rs. 1385.10 million”1.

We then move on to the GT Road towards our destination. We stop by on Taxila –

Khanpur road for a hot cup a cha and ultimately reach our destination @ 5:45
pm. As soon as we enter the main gate of the premises, we drive up the hill and
finally check into our two rooms assisted by Mr. Shahzad, the caretaker. We
offload our bags in the rooms and rush for dinner at the roadside restaurants
around 6:30 p.m. since there was no arrangement of food at the facility.

We landed at the City BBQ restaurant, ordered Chappal Kebabs and chicken
barbeque, and enjoyed our dinner topping it down with hot cups of Green tea. By

1
http://www.wapda.gov.pk/index.php/projects/water-sector/o-m/khanpur-dam
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8:00 p.m. we were back in our rooms and after offering Isha prayer, we retired by
9:00 p.m.

The next morning i.e. 18th November 2017, I got up around 7:15 a.m. and after
offering my Qaza Fajr prayer, I went out for a walk while enjoying the scenery
around me.

(The fortress like building of the Khanpur guesthouse)

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(The view of the beautiful Khanpur Lake from the guesthouse)

(Another view of the Khanpur guesthouse)

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While walking around the periphery of the building, I noticed a gallery where
there was a series of pictures on the walls. Here too, I ended up taking pictures to
apprise my audience about the history of this amazing building and the Dam
itself.

(The history of the Haro River)

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 (The famous Bridge of Boats @ Attock)

(The construction of the Khanpur guest house in 1966)

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Sabeen and the kids got up by 8:00 a.m. and the cook arrived by 9:30 a.m. who
cooked a sumptuous breakfast for us. After breakfast, all of us went around the
vicinity of the guesthouse and took some more pictures.

(The boys basking in the morning sun)

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 (The salient features of the Khanpur Dam project)

(Mr. & Mrs. Shaikh posing at the guesthouse entrance)

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We left the guesthouse around 12:10 p.m. and while leaving, took this picture:

(The irrigation system of the Khanpur Dam)

On the way back on the Khanpur – Taxila road, we decided to stop over at the
Mohra Moradu stupa, which is one of the ancient tourist sites in Taxila.

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 (The details of the Mohra Moradu stupa)

(Mohra Moradu and UNESCO heritage site in Taxila)

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While walking around the place, we enjoyed the beauty of this tourist attraction
and took some more pictures.

(Posing with the remains of some stupas)

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 (The earthquake resistant walls at the periphery of the stupa)

We then stopped at Sirsukh by 2:12 p.m. Since I had visited the place a few times,
thus, the kids went around for views and then we left in a jiffy. It was already
2:30 p.m. and we thus stopped by for lunch at a roadside café, the name of which
I of course do not remember.

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 (Enjoying a lavish fish barbeque and Chappal kebabs)

By 3:00 p.m., we passed by the famous University of Engineering & Technology

(UET), Taxila and stopped to take this picture:

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 (Posing at the entrance of the UET, Taxila)

Further, down south, we encountered the Dharmarajika Stupa, another UNESCO

heritage site and decided to stop here too.

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 (The site plan of the Dharmarajika Stupa)

(The ruins around the Dharmarajika Stupa)

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 (The Dharmarajika Stupa, another UNESCO heritage site in Taxila)

We take to the road again while capturing a glimpse of this board:

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 (Taxila is a heaven for Buddhist archeological sites)

As usual, we end up stopping at a roadside fruit stall to enjoy our ritual of having
Maltay (a local variety of oranges), and ate to our heart’s content.

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 (And which of the favors of your Lord will ye deny)

We ultimately reach home @ 5:12 p.m. right in time to offer our Maghreb prayer
and thus another beautiful tour ended until we embark on another journey.

Shaikh Muhammad Ali

‘The Wandering Dervish’
E-mail: dushkashaikh@gmail.com
Cell: +00-92-317-0003623
Saturday 11 Jamadius Sani, 1440 Hijri
16th February 2019, 10:26 p.m. (PST)

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