Chagai lot covers the strategic area in the South-Western part of Baluchistan, covering 32% of the total area of Balochistan. It lies at the borders with Iran in West, Afghanistan in North, Makran division in South and Quetta division in East. The Chagai lot has 4 districts and 11 tehsils. Chagai is also famous because Pakistan conducted its nuclear tests in Chagai hills. Kharan district is part of Dusht-e-Lut desert of Iran. Mastung and Nushki are important for their fruit and date crops. Balochistan Govt. is currently planning to divide Kharan district into two administrative units namely Kharan and Washuk. However, due to non-availability of the tehsil, patwar and muza level divisions, it is difficult to demarcate Washuk district, in our GIS mapping.
In some cases, the Population Census Organization has published population of muza equal to '0' or '-' or below 100 persons. In fact, the growth rate of these muza is negative as the mortality and migration rates are higher as compared to fertility in these areas, so that after implementation of growth rate formula, the population of these muza falls into '0' or '-' or <100 inhabitants. In real situation the population of muza having the stated signs is counted as population between 10 to 100 persons (PCO, 1998).
The submission of bids for the provision of basic telephony and data services in Chagai lot was scheduled to be held on February 14, 2008. None of the licensed telecom operators submitted its bid for the subject lot. This is a setback in the Rural Telecom Project. The matter was subsequently discussed in great detail in the Board Meeting of USF. As a consequence, a strategy to deal with such difficult Lots was formulated for the future.
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