Mohmand Dam project price being negotiated

ISLAMABAD: The consultants hired for detailed engineering of Mohmand Dam are evaluating the bidding documents and negotiating price with Chinese Gezhouba and Descon’s joint venture (JV).

The consultants are hopeful that the project cost will be reduced by almost Rs50 billion, claimed an official source associated with the project.

Talking to The News, the top official informed that Wapda’s consultant Nespak, which was hired for Mohmand Dam project, was evaluating the bidding documents.

The quoted PC1 price of Mohmand Dam was Rs309 billion. However, after the evaluation of bidding documents and keeping the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules in view, Wapda authorities are hopeful that the PC1 price of dam would be reduced from Rs309 billion to Rs230 to Rs240 billion.

According to the official, the land price for Mohmand Dam was almost Rs8.6 billion and the salaries and other expenditures of government officials were not included in the price.

The official further informed that the government had finalized the land acquisition deal with the local tribal elders and had signed an agreement with them.

A total of 8,600 acre land was required for the dam which had already been finalised. The government is paying Rs800,000 to Rs1,000,000 per acre to the land owners.

Around Rs1.5 billion has been released by the government for land acquisition whereas the government has already released Rs500 million to the deputy commissioner of the area for

acquiring essential land initially. Briefing about the project, the official informed that initially Wapda hired three consultant companies including Nespak and two foreign companies ASMEC (Australian) and ACE. However, former Chief Justice (retd) Saqib Nisar directed Wapda to hire only a Pakistani company.

After the CJ SC directions, the government has retained Nespak for the project which was hired for the detailed engineering of the said project.

To a question about the start of construction work, the official said right now the consultants and the bidders are negotiating the price and evaluating the bidding documents and it might take a few week.

As soon as the evaluation of bidding documents is completed the companies will start shifting the machinery on the dam site, he said.

According to the Wapda official, Chinese Gezhouba is one of the best companies in the world as it has already completed Neelum Jhelum project which is considered one of the dangerous projects in the world. It is pertinent to mention that the project site was identified back in 1963 by Wapda.

However, the actual work for constructing the dam initiated in 2000 when a Japanese company surveyed

the construction site and submitted its feasibility report. But the project was shelved. Later in 2012, the PPP government gave go-ahead for the project and four consultant companies including Nespak, ACE, SMEC and BAK worked on the detailing design of the project. But due to some technical reasons it was stopped, the source said.

“Due to 2010 torrential floods, the designing of the dam was changed twice and in 2014, a European consultancy firm gave approval of the final design flood after which the project was initiated.

The previous government had approved Rs309 billion PC-I. The previous government had allocated Rs2 billion for preliminary works. So far Rs700 million have already been spent on investigations, seismic surveys, drilling in river, mapping and salaries of the staff attached with this project,” the source said. According to the source, the project will be completed in 5 years and eight months with a total cost of Rs309 billion.

The deputy commissioner of the area has already finalized the terms and conditions of land acquisition with the locals. It will require around 8,000 acres land for the dam site.

Talking about the reasons of delay in this project, the source said that an American company was given the project of Mohmand Dam on build–own–operate–transfer (BOOT) basis.

However, Wapda expressed concerns on some technical issues and the project was cancelled.

“Enzo was interested in generating electricity only and did not want to invest in building reservoir and flood control system.

Due to this reason the government cancelled the project of Enzo but the company later challenged this decision in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

This might be one of the reasons of delay in the project,” said the source. It is pertinent to mention here that once completed, Mohmand Dam will generate 740 MW of hydroelectricity. It will also provide clean drinking water for Peshawar city and also irrigate 15,100 acres of land. The dam will also be helpful in controlling the floods downstream.