Bhasha Dam ground-breaking today

OUR STAFF REPORTER LAHORE Foundation stone of worlds highest Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) multi-purpose Diamer-Bhasha Dam will be laid on Tuesday (today). President Asif Ali Zardari will be the chief guest of groundbreaking ceremony. Having a designed live water storage capacity of about 6.4 Million Acre Feet (MAF) and power generation capacity of 4,500MW, Diamer-Bhasha Dam, the third largest water reservoir in the country, would help resolve energy crisis, enhance agriculture products, besides water storage capacity, official sources informed TheNation. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, Water and Power Minister Syed Naveed Qamar will also attend the ceremony. Wapda Chairman Shakil Durrani briefed the guests about the salient features of the project. It would take 10 years for the completion of the dam with the cost of $12 billion. The government has already fixed Rs 15 billion in the annual budget for the construction of the Dam, said the sources, adding America has pledged $2 billion and Asian Development Bank would grant $5 billion for the project. He said that negotiations with other international funding agencies are also underway to get loan for the project. National exchequer would be benefited with Rs 200 billion annually and national grid would be assisted with the cheap electricity of 4,500MW per day after the completion of the project. As per details, the project is located on Indus River, about 315 km upstream of Tarbela Dam, 165 km downstream of Gilgit and 40 km downstream of Chilas. The dam would have a maximum height of 270 meters, and impound a reservoir of about 7,500,000 acre feet. Diamer project would cover an area of 110 km and extend 100 km upstream of the dam site up to Raikot Bridge on Karakoram Highway. An amount of Rs 27.824 billion is required for the acquisition of land and resettlement of the people to be affected in the wake of the construction of the dam. Under the proposed project, Rs 10.76 billion will be spent for the acquisition of agriculture-barren land, tree and nurseries and Rs 1.638 billion to be utilised for properties and infrastructure, Rs 8.8 billion for establishment of nine model villages, Rs 62.119 million for pay and allowances for administrative arrangements, and Rs.17.7 million for contingent administrative expenses. Furthermore, it was learnt that after construction of the dam, the life of Tarbela Dam would be enhanced by 35 years while the cost of project would be recovered in eight years. This is worth to mention here that President of Pakistan during his national address on January 17, 2006 had announced the decision of the government to construct five multi-purpose storages in the country during next 10-12 years. Diamer Bhasha Dam Project is one of those announced by the President at that time.