Pakistan seeks help for 54 mega projects: Steel Guru

Business Recorder reported that Pakistan has sought assistance from Friends of Pakistan for 54 mega development projects including USD 8.4 billion Diamer Bhasha dam and Neelum Jhelum hydropower project.

According to the sources, a formal announcement for assistance may come in the next ministerial meeting of the FOP that the Japanese government has offered to host.

Friends of Pakistan forum, considered to be President Mr Asif Ali Zardari's brainchild was launched in New York on September 26th 2008 on the sidelines of the 63rd United Nations General Assembly meeting held in New York. The FOP membership consists of countries that are also members of the aid to Pakistan consortium, which was constituted in 1960 by the World Bank in an effort to facilitate co-ordination amongst the major assistance providers to Pakistan as well as for other debtor countries.

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‘Pakistan to add 20,000MW in 10 years’: The News

Friday, November 14, 2008
By our correspondent

LAHORE: Pakistan is likely to add 20,000MW hydro-electricity generation capacities in next 10 years that besides mitigating power shortage would have sobering effect on the average cost of electricity generation.Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) Chairman, Shakeel Ahmad Durrani stated this during an interview with The News. He said the major hydro-electric generation would come from Dialmer Basha Dam that would produce 4500 MW electricity, the construction of which would start by second quarter next year. He said earlier, WAPDA was concentrating on mega dams only that served the dual purpose of providing water for irrigation and generating electricity. He said now it has been decided to explore all avenues from where the hydro-electric generation is possible.He said Bunji a run of the river project would produce 5400MW electricity. Engineering of this project has been completed and its tenders would be invited in early 2010. This project would be completed in seven years and its cost is $6 billion. The project would be built on River Indus near Gilgit, he added.He said Dasu is another run of the river electricity generation project, located 2km upstream on Indus River 69km downstream of Diamer Basha dam. He said feasibility study of the project would be completed within this year. He said tentative project cost is $6.5 billion. The project he added should be completed within a decade as its implementation period is estimated to be 7 years.

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Pakistan approves big new dam project: Radio Austrailia

The Pakistan government has approved the building of 12 billion US dollar dam on the Indus river in the north of the country.

Water minister Raja Pervez Ashraf says the new Basha dam will produce 4,500 megawatts of electricity as part of efforts to overcome Pakistan's acute power shortage.

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Six hydropower projects to be initiated by 2010: The News

Friday, October 31, 2008
By our correspondent

LAHORE: In addition to initiating construction work on the 4,500 MW Diamer-Basha Dam Project next year, another half dozen mega hydropower projects including Kohala, Dasu, Bunji, Munda, Palas Valley would be undertaken in 2010-12.

This was stated by WAPDA Chairman Shakil Durrani during a briefing here at WAPDA House today arranged for a delegation of the 89th Management Course of National School of Public Policy, Lahore led by its Rector Lt. Gen. (R) Javed Hassan. These projects would generate about 21,000 MW of electricity on their completion and help improve low-cost hydropower proportion in the national grid.

The delegation was briefed that Pakistan has been blessed with the identified hydropower potential of more than 54,000 MW but only 16 per cent of this potential has so far been taped due to variety of reasons.

After its bifurcation last year, WAPDA is fully focused on water and hydropower development. The work on 969 MW Neelum-Jhelum Hydroelectric Project has already started, while feasibility studies and detailed engineering designs of most of the mega projects in both water and power sectors are currently at the advance stages and likely to be completed by the next year,

The delegation was informed that Pakistan is storing only 11 per cent of the annual water flows of its rivers and, if this capacity is not increased, Pakistan will be a water short country by 2012. The delegation was told that the accumulative gross storage capacity of Tarbela, Mangla and Chashma reservoirs that originally used to be 18.37 million acre feet (MAF), has reduced to 13.24 MAF due to sedimentation, resulting in 28 per cent loss of storage capacity.

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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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