Chinese firm resumes work on Diamer Bhasha dam

PESHAWAR: After Tarbela, a Chinese company has resumed work on the Diamer Bhasha Dam, but work on the Dasu Dam is still suspended. Sources confirmed that work on the Dasu Dam will resume in a couple of days.

Nazakat Hussain, General Manager, Diamer-Bhasha Dam (DBD), confirmed that the Chinese company had resumed work on the dam. He said around 350 Chinese nationals have resumed work on DBD. Over 6,000 local staff is already working on it. The Chinese company had halted work after five Chinese nationals were killed in a suicide attack on a bus of Dasu Dam engineers.

Diamer-Bhasha Dam is a concrete-filled gravity dam on the River Indus between Kohistan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Diamer district in Gilgit Baltistan.

On May 13, 2020, the Pakistani government signed a Rs442 billion contract with a joint venture of China Power and Frontier Works Organisation to construct the dam. The dam would produce 4,800 MW of cheap electricity through hydro-power generation.

An official of Dasu Dam told this correspondent that security has been beefed up on the site and hopefully, the Chinese will resume work in a few days.

The prime minister’s visit and meeting with the Chinese have also boosted the morale of Chinese engineers and staff.