Construction of Dasu HPP to start in a week

LAHORE: In a significant development towards indigenous hydropower resources, the construction work on the 4,320MW Dasu Hydropower Project (HPP) will commence within a week, as the contractor for civil works has been mobilised to the project site.

This was stated by the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) chairman Muzammil Hussain, who visited the project to review progress on the preliminary works of infrastructure development and resettlement. The chairman said commencement of Dasu HPP’s construction was going to be a good omen for hydropower development in the country, as this project was being constructed by leveraging Wapda’s financial strength.

Out of $4.2 billion required for completion of stage-I of Dasu HPP, the World Bank (IDA) is providing a credit of $824 million, while the rest of the amount is being arranged by Wapda from various commercial sources and reploughing its own revenue surplus.

Expressing satisfaction over the financial arrangement for the construction of the project, he said last week, Wapda successfully ventured into the international financial market on its own independent standing to secure $350 million at a very competitive rate, unprecedented tenure of 10 years, and a staggered draw down to suit the project’s financing requirements.

“This amount has been raised with partial guarantee of World Bank (IDA) and the rest by the government of Pakistan. This successful financing is a testament of the confidence reposed by the international financial institutions on the credit worthiness of Wapda. Apart from this, Wapda had already arranged local financing for the project worth Rs144 billion from a consortium of local banks,” he further said. The 4,320MW Dasu HPP is being constructed by Wapda on River Indus upstream of Dasu Town in Kohistan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.