ISLAMABAD, Dec 5 (APP): Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif
Monday approved in principle the financing plan of Diamer Bhasha
Dam on self-reliance basis.
The innovative plan presented by the Secretary Water and Power,
proposes funding of the project’s dam portion from the allocations of
Public Sector Development Programme’s (PSDP) and the generated
resources from Water and Power Development Authority’s (WAPDA).
Rest of the financing for the power generation portion will be
arranged on commercial basis by the Ministry, either through WAPDA
or through leasing its existing projects.
The Prime Minister asked Secretary Water and Power, Secretary
Planning and Secretary Finance to expedite completion of financial
proposal.
He also directed the Secretary Water and Power to start the
preparations so that the physical work on the dam be started before
the end of 2017.
The Prime Minister also appreciated the fact that the land
acquisition for the Dam has been completed with the efforts of the
Ministry and the Gilgit Baltistan administration.
The Diamer Bhasha Dam was approved for construction by Council
of Common Interests in 2009.
The efforts to finance it through multilateral donors have
been taking a longer time and Pakistan needs to enhance its storage
capacity urgently to meet the challenge of becoming a water scarce
country.
The storage capacity in the existing dams is fast depleting due
to silting and the country losing on its agricultural production
after every few years due to a dry season, needs to overcome by
constructing more storages.
Diamer Basha Dam will provide 8.1 MAF of gross storage, of
which 6.4 MAF will be the live storage with a capacity to produce
4500 MWs of inexpensive and clean energy.
