WB may provide $625m loan for Tarbela-5 Extension

ISLAMABAD: The World Bank (WB) has indicated to provide around $625 million loan for upcoming Tarbela-5 Extension Project with generation capacity of 1,410 megawatt as the Planning Commission’s Central Development Working Party (CDWP) has already approved this project with estimated cost of $795 million. The WB’s appraisal mission led by Washington based team leader of Bank on water sector Masood Ahmed is currently visiting Pakistan to finalise details of proposed Tarbela-5 extension project.
Although, the exact financing has not yet been finalised but the WB along with other donors is ready to provide external financing to the tune of 85 percent cost of this project out of total requirement of $795 million.
The WB’s office in Islamabad arranged visit of a select group of media persons for Tarbela dam to review progress on Tarbela-4 extension project during this week.
“We are considering Tarbela-5 extension project but nothing has so far been confirmed from our side,” the WB’s team leader on water sector Masood Ahmed told the media at site of Tarbela dam.
By compressing the deadline for completion of this project by eight months from Feb 2018 to June 2017, the government is planning to add cheapest hydropower of 1,410 megawatt (MW) into national grid by June 2017 with completion of World Bank funded Tarbela-4 extension project.
“The WB will provide project loan for upcoming Tarbela-5 hydropower extension for generating another 1,410 megawatt which has already been approved by the Planning Commission’s CDWP. This upcoming project will kick-start by next year in March 2016 and will be completed in 39 months period in May 2019,” Iqbal Masood Siddiqui, General Manager Tarbela Dam project told a select group of reporters at the site of the project this week.
In order to compress the deadline for Tarbela-4 extension project, the government has agreed to provide $51 million to contractor for accelerating the completion period of the project. “We will be able to add 1,410 MW electricity into national grid for peak season of 2017,” he added.
He said the basic purpose of Tarbela dam is to provide water requirement of provinces for irrigation purposes in accordance with the directives of Indus River System Authority (IRSA). After meeting irrigation requirements, the hydro electricity is generated for meeting power sector requirements.
The sediment has been increasing in Tarbela dam and its complete flush out required a cost of $12 billion and another issue is dumping the waste properly. In view of these difficulties, he said that the proper management is being done to tackle increasing sediment that can increase the life of Tarbela project by 50 years.
For Tarbela-4 project, the total cost stood at $922 million out of which the WB provided $845 million. Out of WB’s loan, the saving of this project was estimated at $130 million which might be diverted towards upcoming Tarbela-5 project if the Bank’s Board granted its approval.
Around 42.07 percent civil work has been completed as more than 400 Chinese workaholic workers are constructing this project with full dedication. The state-of-the-art Tarbela dam which was started in 1968 and completed in 1974 with a total cost of $2.85 billion was the biggest dam at that time. Till now it’s one of the largest dams as many other countries constructed bigger dams but Pakistan remained unable to break even its own record. Total catchment area of Tarbela reservoir stands at 65,500 sq miles and its annual flow of water is 64 million acre feet (MAF). In the wake of increasing sediment, the present capacity of dam is decreasing and now stands at 6.434 MAF now from designated capacity of 9.679 MAF.