ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Monday approved in principle the financing plan for Diamer Basha Dam presented by Secretary of Ministry of Water and Power.
The PM asked the Secretary Ministry of Water and Power, Mohammad Younus Dagha, Secretary Ministry of Planning and Development, Hassan Nawaz Tarar and Secretary Ministry of Finance, Waqar Masood to expedite completion of financial proposal.
He directed the Secretary Ministry of Water and Power to start the preparations so that the physical work on the Dam is started before the end of 2017, said a statement issued here.
The PM also appreciated the fact that the land acquisition for the Dam has been completed with the efforts of the Ministry and the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) administration.
This innovative proposal on self reliance basis will fund the Dam portion of the project from Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) allocations and Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) generated resources.
The 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.
Diamer Basha Dam was approved for construction by the Council of Common Interests (CCI) in the year 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 deleting due to silting and the country losing on its agricultural production after every few years due to a dry season, needs to be overcome by constructing more storages.
After completion, Diamer Basha Dam will provide 8.1 MAF of gross storage of which 6.4 MAF will be the live storage and a capacity to produce 4500 MWs of cheap and clean energy.
