China to fully finance Diamer Bhasha dam in Pakistan: Daily.pk

In a major development regarding the construction of Diamer Bhasha dam, China has agreed to completely finance the $8.5 billion project, sources in Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) told on Thursday. 

German Company Lemhyer has issued final draft of the dam in which the company has projected the cost of dam at $8.5 billion against the earlier projected cost of $6.5 billion in the year 2005. Government wants to start the construction work on Bhasha dam in the year 2009, sources added. 

Pakistan has turned to China regarding the financing of the project after World Bank refused to add the project in the $1.4 billion aid for current financial year 2008-09. They further said that World Bank lending rates are higher and China would provide loan on lower rates. Pakistan had submitted the draft of detailed engineering design of the dam and in response China has agreed to provide financing for the said project. Sources informed that China has also great expertise in the working on big dams and it has expert labour force and machinery for such purposes. 

Chinese government has offered Pakistan to provide skilled labour for the construction of the Bhasha dam as it has 17,000 skilled labourers who have worked on three Gorges Dams in china, which are generating 30,000MW electricity. They said that China has also assured that it would hire a company to provide financing to Pakistan for the construction of the dam. Earlier, Pakistan was looking at Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank.

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