Topi (Swabi)

Topi is a tehsil of district Swabi in the Khyber Pukhtoonkwa province of Pakistan. It is administratively subdivided into twelve Union Councils,
namely: Batakara, Gabasni, Gandaf, Gani Chatra, Jhanda, Kabgani, Kalabat, Kotha, Maini, Pabeni, Zarobi Topi East & Topi West.

TOPI city is located in the east of Swabi District of the Khyber Pukhtoonkwa Province of Pakistan. It is the birthplace of Nawab Sir Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Khan, who was a pioneer of modern education in the Province. He founded Islamia College, Peshawar in 1913 and Government High School, Topi in 1935 and also donated Land for the establishment of... these educational institutes. Topi city is located at west of Tarbela Dam, the world's largest earth filled dam. Most of the land of Topi has been used in the establishment of Tarbel Dam. Tarbela Dam is also the largest hydroelectric generation project in Pakistan which produces 3400 mega watts electricity.

TOPI city along with the other three villages i.e. Kotha, Maini and Batakara constitute the area known as "Uthman". Uthman is the branch of the famous Yousafzai tribe. The town of Topi became well known after the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI), named after (Ghulam Ishaq Khan), a former President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, was established here.

TOPI town is bifurcated among two union councils, one is called Topi (East) while the other is called Topi (West). Topi is further divided into three parts, Alizo, Akazo and Kanazo. Alizo comprises of Mohalla Booba Khel, Punj Paw, Ismail Khel and Suma Khel. Akazo is composed of Mohalla Urh Ibrahim(M Sajjad Yousafzai mohalla), Khadar Khan Khel, Painda Khel, Sabi Khel, Pir Azgi and Niki Khel. Kanazo is comprised of Mohalla Musa Khel, Bara Khel, Sana Khel and Ghulam & Muhammad Khan Khel.

Chief Organizer of Peoples Youth Organization of PPPP Mr. Muhammad Shafiq Akhunzada belongs to Topi and also works diligently in the social sector for the upbringing of the people of Topi. Mr. Gul Hayat Khan is the Nazim and Mr. Saleem Javed is the Naib Nazim of the Union Council Topi East while Mr. Humayun Khan is the Nazim and Mr. Muhammad Nawaz is the Naib Nazim of Union Council Topi West. President of Pakistan Peoples Party District Swabi Haji Munfa'at Khan also belongs to Topi. General Usman Shah (R), former Deputy Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is the resident of Topi.

People

People of Topi are very peaceful and hospitable. Topi is a big business center for the nearby villages including Marghuz, Zaida, Swabi, Gadoon and Amazai areas. Most of the people are having their own business whereas educated community are doing jobs in public as well as private sectors. A large number of people are working abroad i.e. UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, USA, Spain, Belgium, Australia and South Africa etc. About 20 percent of its population are comprising of the people who migrated from various parts of the swabi district and / or N-W.F.P. province in search of livelihood. In the year 2006, Topi became a Tehsil - which is an administrative subdivision of a district.

Land

Most of the land of the people of Topi have been used in the construction of Tarbela Dam, Ghazi Bharotha Hydro Electric Power, GIK Institute Topi, Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate and STFA irrigation project. It is pertinent to mention that STFA is constructed on the land provided by Topi but Topi has not been given the facility of irrigation for its land / farms.

Religious scholars

TOPI has created religious scholars like late Molana Bacha Gul (Fazle Ameen) and late Molana Gulfam Shah who contributed a lot for the reconciliation among the people for their acrimony. They also played a significant role for preaching the teachings of Islam in this locality.

Tarbela Dam

A large dam on the Indus River in Pakistan. It is located in Topi District Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, about 50 kilometers northwest of Islamabad. The dam is 485 feet (148 m) high above the riverbed. The dam forms the Tarbela Reservoir, with a surface area of approximately 250-square-kilometre. The dam was completed in 1974 and was designed to store water from the Indus River for irrigation, flood control, and the generation of hydroelectric power.
Description
The project is located at a narrow spot in the Indus River valley, shortly located at the point from where the Topi city starts. Here the river formerly split around a large island close to the left bank. The main dam wall, built of earth and rock fill, stretches 2,743 meters (8,999 ft) from the island to river right, standing 148 metres (486 ft) high. A pair of concrete auxiliary dams spans the river from the island to river left. The spillways, located on the auxiliary dams, in turn consist of two parts. The main spillway has a discharge capacity of 18,406 cubic meters per second (650,000 cu ft/s) and the auxiliary spillway, 24,070 cubic meters per second (850,000 cu ft/s). The outlet works are a group of four tunnels that have been cut through the valley wall at river right, for uses of hydropower generation and flow control. These tunnels were originally used to divert the Indus River while the dam was being constructed. The fifth river outlet is situated on the left side of the dam and was completed in April 1976.
A hydroelectric power plant on the right side of the main dam houses 14 generators fed with water from outlet tunnels 1, 2, and 3. There are four 175 MW generators on tunnel 1, six 175 MW generators on tunnel 2, and four 432 MW generators on tunnel 3, for a total generating capacity of 3,478 MW. Tarbela Reservoir is 80.5 kilometers (50.0 mi) long, with a surface area of 250 square kilometers (97 sq mi). The reservoir holds 11,600,000 acre feet (1.43×1010 m3) of water, with a live storage of 9,700,000 acre feet (1.196×1010 m3). The catchment area upriver of the Tarbela Dam is spread over 168,000 square kilometers (65,000 sq mi) of land largely supplemented by snow and glacier melt from the southern slopes of the Himalayas. There are two main Indus River tributaries upstream of the Tarbela Dam. These are the Shyok River, joining near Skardu, and the Siran River near Tarbela.
Main dam
The principal element of the project is an embankment 9,000 feet (2700 m) long with a maximum height of 465 feet (143 m). The total volume of earth and rock used for the project is approximately 200,000,000 cubic yards (150,000,000 m3) which makes it the largest man made structure in the world. The main embankment is a carefully designed, zoned structure composed of impervious core, bounded on both sides by gradually increasing sized material including coarser sands gravels cobbles and finally large sized riprap on the outer slopes. An impervious blanket, 42 feet (13 m) thick at the dam and tailing to 5 feet (1.5 m) at the upstream end, covers 5,700 feet (1700 m) of the alluvial foundation on the upstream side. These deposits in the valley are up to 700 feet (210 m) deep and in places consist of open work gravels. The dam crosses this essentially alluvial valley and connects the last points to high ground before the mountains give way to the plains. A 24 feet (7.3 m) thick filter drain mattress under the embankment together with nearly vertical chimney drain provides the necessary facility to collect the seepage.
Power station
According to the original plan, four (4) power units of 175 MW generating capacity each were to be installed on each of the tunnels 1, 2 and 3 located on the right bank with the ultimate installed capacity of 2,100 MW. Of these, four (4) units on tunnel 1 were commissioned in the year 1977. Due to increasing prices of the fossil fuel, the Govt of Pakistan has been laying greater emphasis on generation of cheap Hydro power. In pursuance of this policy, WAPDA carried out studies to tap the maximum power potential of Tarbela. As a result, it has been found possible to install six (6) units, instead of four (4) only on tunnel NO.2. Units 5 to 8 on tunnel NO.2 were commissioned in 1982, and units 9 and 10 in 1985. Based on studies, four power units of 432 MW capacity each were installed on tunnel NO.3. Thus the total ultimate power potential of the project enhanced from 2100 MW as originally planned to 3478 MW. There are further plans to increase the power generation by 800 MW to bring the total Power Generation Capacity to more than 4200 MW.
Project implementation
On May 14, 1968, the World’s largest single contract for the construction of civil works at that time, the Tarbela Dam Project was signed at a price of RS.2,965,493,217 ($ 623 Million) between the Water and Power Development Authority of Pakistan and the Tarbela Dam Joint Venture which comprised a group of three Italian and three French heavy construction contractors. Later five German and two Swiss contractors also joined the group making up a consortium of thirteen European firms led by Italian firm namely Impregilo. The engineers for the design and supervision of construction and operation were from the firm Tippetts, Abbett, McCarthy and Stratton International Corporation (TAMS) of the United States.
The construction of Tarbela Dam was carried out in three stages to meet the diversion requirements of the river. In stage-I, the river Indus was allowed to flow in its natural channel while work was continued on right bank where a 1500 feet (457 m) long and 694 feet (212 m) wide diversion channel was excavated and a 105 feet (32 m) high buttress dam was constructed with its top elevation at 1, 187 feet (362 m) The diversion channel was capable of discharging 750,000 cu ft/s (21,000 m3/s). Construction under stage-I lasted 2½ years.
In stage-II, the main embankment dam and the upstream blanket were constructed across the main valley of the river Indus while water remained diverted through the diversion channel. By the end of stage-II, tunnels had been built for diversion purposes. The stage-II construction took 3 years to complete. Under stage-III, the work was carried out on the closure of diversion channel and construction of the dam in that portion while the river was made to flow through diversion tunnels. The remaining portion of upstream blanket and the main dam at higher levels was also completed as a part of stage-III world.
The reservoir created submerged much of Amb state.
Life Span
Because the source of the Indus River is glacial melt water from the Himalayas, the river carries huge amounts of sediment. The annual suspended sediment load is about 430 million tons per year. This means that, over time, the reservoir will fill. The useful life of the dam and reservoir was estimated to be somewhere around fifty years, since the dam's completion in 1976, meaning that the reservoir would have been full of sediment by 2030.
However, sedimentation has been much lower than predicted, and it is now estimated that the useful lifespan of the dam will be 85 years, to about 2060.

Social sector

Mr. Muhammad Rafiq Akhunzada, former General Secretary, Pakistan Peoples Party and dedicated social worker contributed a lot for the establishment of Civil Hospital Topi, GIK Institute Topi, Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate, and the road between Topi and Ghazi by approaching government officials and writing various articles at national and local newspapers. These projects indeed made Topi very prosperous which also paved the way for job creation for the youth. Mr. Muhammad Rafiq helped induction of hundreds of people as employees at various factories at the initial stage. Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate was established as an alternative incentive for ban on poppy cultivation in the Gadoon area by the Government with the help of US Aid. At the very outset i.e. in 1988 the Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate was in full swing as 400 units were running. Now only 20 of its units are functional.

There are other social workers who are contributing a lot in the social sector named Mr. Saleem Bhadar and Mr. Muhammad Shafiq Akhunzada and Syed Arif Shah etc.

Sports

TOPI has an attractive sports environment. Cricket, badminton and football are the favourite games of its youth. One can not go without being entertained by the local cultural game called, "Makha" which is played by the farmers at the end of April and start of May after harvesting the wheat crops each year. Makha (Shooting) is the traditional game of Swabi, in which different villages take part to compete each other. Makha is kind of shooting using a bow and arrow with a relatively large stick and instead of a tip, it has a flat dish-shaped head called Tobray, The target is hit by arrow with the help of bow.

Hotels

There is a four star hotel in Topi called Mahaban Hotel which is named after the famous mountain Mahaban. Standard boarding and lodging facilities are available in this Hotel.

Transport

People from far and near always complain about the short width of the road in the main market and the sub-standard material used in the construction of this road. The other significant problem of this historic city is its drainage system which result in the deterioration of the main road. Water remain on the road till weeks after the rain. The present road is an encroachment to the original map of the road approved in 1952. Some influential have carried out atrocious encroachments in the main market of Topi.

Sir Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum (1864-1937)

He was one of the few educated personalities from the north west of the British Empire. The family comes from
Kota Swabi, part of Mardan division.


His great work is in the field of education. With the help of a British visionary, Roos Keppel, he established the
famous Islamia College in Peshawar. Initially it was a school and has gradually expanded into Peshawar University.
He was the second person who donated money (Rupees 1000 at that time) from his pocket for the College. He kept
a very high standard for the college and was always searching for good teaching staff. This college has produced
an enormous amount of talented people in the province.

He ultimately became the first chief minister of the North West Frontier Province in 1937.His tenure was very brief
and his sad demise came the same year.

There are numerous places named after him, to acknowledge the great work he has done. These are:

Qayyum Manzal, Hostel in Islamia College
Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Khan Road in University Town
Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Khan Archaeological Museum, Peshawar University