Bhasha Dam project unbundled into two categories

ISLAMABAD: After finding it hard to complete construction of much awaited Diamer Bhasha dam, the government has unbundled this project into two separate categories and first phase of construction of water reservoir will be accomplished with more estimated cost of Rs510 billion.

The government has already incurred expenditures of Rs140 billion to procure land at Diamer Bhasha dam and remaining cost of Rs510 billion will be managed through government’s PSDP, Wapda’s own resources, commercial borrowings and other avenues. So the total cost of physical construction has been estimated at Rs649 billion.

After completion of first phase of physical water reservoir of Basha dam, the investment will be sought to install power houses to generate 4500 MW electricity. In the wake of financial constraints, the government unbundled construction of Bhasha dam into two separate categories including physical work and installation of power generation and decided to complete construction of reservoir first and then investment will be sought for placing power houses.

For first phase the government on Monday cleared construction of physical work of Basha dam with revised cost of Rs 649.357 billion.

The cost of the project has been slashed down from earlier approved cost of Rs894.257 billion to Rs649.357 billion and the project will be accomplished in nine years period. According to working paper approved by Central Development Working Party (CDWP) chaired by Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Sartaj Aziz here at P Block, out of total revised estimated cost of Rs649 billion, the government will generate Rs496.148 billion through local component while Rs153 billion will be managed through foreign exchange component.

The Diamer Bhasha Dam Project (DBDP) site is located on Indus River, 315 km upstream of Tarbela dam, 180 km below the town of Gilgit and 40 km downstream of Chilas, the district headquarters of Diamer, Gilgit-Baltistan (GB). The project lies in districts of Kohistan, KP and Diamer, GB.

Initial feasibility study for dam was carried out by Monenco, Canada in 1984. Detailed project feasibility report was carried out by a joint venture of foreign and local consultants (NEAC) in 2004. In 2008, a third study for detailed engineering design & tender documentation was carried out by another joint venture of foreign and local consultants (DBC). The objectives of this mega dam project envisages as water storage, flood control and power generation. The storage capability of Pakistan will be increased from 30 days to 48 days after construction of this reservoir. Further, the construction of dam part will make power generation facilities an attractive future investment and will in turn add 4500 MW of clean energy into the national grid.

This Bhasha dam project was approved unanimously by Council of Common Interest (CCI) on 18-7-2010 for national consensus. The Gilgit Baltistan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted the environment NOC on 30-4-2014 whereas under process with KP EPA. The CWDP has referred approval of this project to Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC). According to press statement issued by the Planning Commission after the meeting, the CDWP approved 34 projects with estimated cost of Rs365.492 billion. The meeting approved projects related to energy, water resources, transport and communication, science & technology, education, health and other sectors.