Accord for Diamer-Bhasha dam construction signed

islamabad — The government has signed a Rs442 billion contract with a joint venture of a Chinese state-run firm and a commercial arm of Pakistan’s military for the construction of the DiamerBhasha dam.

Chinese state-run firm China Power holds 70 per cent and the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) 30 per cent share in the consortium, Dawn newspaper reported.

The contract signed on Wednesday covers construction of a diversion system, main dam, access bridge and the 21MW Tangir hydropower project.

The eight million acre feet (MAF) reservoir with 272-metre height will be the tallest roller compact concrete (RCC) dam in the world. It will have a spillway, 14 gates and five outlets for flushing out silt. The diversion system involves two tunnels and a diversion canal — all three having one kilometre length each, the paper said.

The bridge — a box girder structure — under the contract will be constructed downstream of the dam structure while the 21MW power plant will be built to meet energy requirements of the project during construction.

Prime Minister Imran Khan was briefed on the progress of the project a couple of days ago. The construction work on the dam will begin in a couple of weeks.

Diamer-Bhasha dam project chief executive officer Amir Bashir Chaudhry and authorised representative of China Power Yang Jiandu signed the agreement on behalf of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) and the joint venture, respectively.

The Wapda chairman expressed the hope that the Diamer-Bhasha dam would be completed as per the time-line to cope with the increasing water and electricity requirements of the country. The dam project with a total financial outlay of about Rs1,406.5 billion would be completed in 2028, he said.

The total financial outlay includes land acquisition and resettlement, confidence building measures for social uplift of the local people, construction of dam and power houses. —