China Gezhouba, Descon to build Mohmand Dam

ISLAMABAD: In major development, the Joint Venture of Pakistani Company — Descon owned by Adviser to PM on Commerce, Textile, Industry & Production and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood and Chinese company -- China Gezhouba has won the bid for construction of Rs309 billions Mohmand Dam with capacity to generate 800MW of electricity on December 31, 2018.

Mohammad Dam is basically the flood control dam and after its construction the dam will be able to store 300,000 cusecs of water, and will save Charsadda, Peshawar and Nowshera. The cost of the said project in 2003 stood at $1 billion which has now swelled to $3 billion because of the inordinate delay in Musharraf regime. The said dam if completed on time, the 2010 flood could have been averted and the loss of $10 billion incurred on account of the flood could have been minimised. During the Musharraf regime, the said dam was handed over to a US company – AMZO which did nothing for 8 years and inflicted the huge loss of Rs152 billion to Pakistan economy. However, in PPP era the project was handed over to Wapda. Soon after that the Wapda arranged $6 million from Afd, a French development agency for detailed engineering of the project. The construction of Japanese and Australian firm carried out the detailed engineering of the project and handed it over to Wapda in 2014.

Wapda Chairman General (R) Mozammil Hussain confirmed to The News that the Joint Venture Descon and China Gezhouba have won the bid and to this effect the contractor will mobilise to the site of the project with 10 weeks. “The international competitive bidding was held in single bid mode and the Joint Venture of Descon and China Gezhouba has qualified for the project. Other joint venture of FWO with Power China also participated the bid which could not win the project,” chairman said. Wapda has also moved to the site for civil works including carrying out the geo tech, seismic and installing the weather stations and constructing the access road. Apart from it, Wapda will itself construct the colony and basis facilities that will accommodate 6000 employees. With Wapda’s this initiative, the construction on the project will be kicked off during the low water flows period from December to May of the Swat River.

Wapda will also make the Kuafer Dam. “This will help reduce the cost of the project as earlier the finalised bidder used to do all such works.” Hussain did not stop here rather further said in the same breath disclosing that with this initiative, dam will be completed 6 months earlier in April-May 2023. “We are in the process to negotiate the winning bidder for further cut in the bid and hopefully Pakistan will be able to make this vital project on a very competitive price,” the chairman said, adding that “You can say that Wapda has achieved the comfort level for initiating the construction of the project after the successful bid of the project.”

On the issue of financing of the project, he said that 37 percent will be given by the federal government through PSDP and 63 percent will be arranged through Wapda equity and commercial loans. The government in every year will provide Rs17 billion for 6 years’ time for Mohmand Dam and Rs30 billion in every year for Diamer Bhasha Dam and Wapda will also generate the amount of Diamer-Basha dam. “So funding is no more issue for Mohmand Dam.”

When asked for the acquisition of the land, he said that Wapda has referred Rs864 million to KPK after the go-head of the KPK government, tribal leaders, the MNAs of the said constituencies wherein the dam side is proposed. He said over 8000 acres of land are required for the project and the process of purchasing the land is underway.

The consultancy firm will be finalised soon as its bidding has also taken place and it is in the process of evaluation. This will ensure the 60 percent recruitment of local engineers and 40 percent from abroad.

However, the top officials in the Ministry of Water and Power said that the project is being initiated in haste as its financial closure is yet to be achieved. Its land has not yet been acquired and consultancy firm is yet to be finalised. “Moreover the revised PC-1 of the project based on the bid of the project is yet to be approved and in the absence of the said pre-requisites the haste groundbreaking of the project is beyond our comprehensions.”

The ground breaking of the project was due on January 2 but on account of pressing engagement of prime minister it has been now postponed till further orders by PM Secretariat.