Diamer-Bhasha Dam will also be part of CPEC: Ahsan

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Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal Monday said that Diamer-Bhasha Dam would also be part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). He said that 11,000MW of electricity would be added to the national grid by 2018, 5,000MW under the CPEC and 6,000MW under non-CPEC projects. The minister said this while briefing the Parliamentary Committee on CPEC which met under the chairmanship of Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed here at the Parliament House.

He briefed the committee on recently concluded 6th meeting of the Joint Co-operation Committee (JCC) in Beijing on December 28-29, 2016, which was attended by chief ministers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Sindh, Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan. During the briefing, Ahsan Iqbal said that they have achieved a total consensus among the provinces on way forward of the CPEC where the Bhasha Dam would also be part of the CPEC, adding that 11,000MW of electricity would be added to the national grid by 2018. He said that this is the biggest energy investment in the history of Pakistan.

Ahsan Iqbal told the committee that for the first time, Thar Coal, which has a huge capacity, would be used for electricity generation for the next 400 years. He added that two transmission lines, Matiari-Lahore and Matiari-Faisalabad, are being installed which would evacuate electricity from south and will be connected to the national grid benefiting all parts of the country.

Moreover, there was an agreement on giving priority to the construction of the western route of the CPEC as well as up-gradation and dualisation of Karachi-Torkham railway line at the cost of $8 billion. This would be the biggest railway modernisation project in the history of Pakistan, he added.

The minister informed the parliamentary committee that industrial zones proposed by the provinces as well as Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan have been accepted and proper feasibility of industrial zones as well as of an additional port at Ketti Bandar, proposed by the Sindh government, would be carried out. He said the all four provincial capitals, Lahore, Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar would have rail-based mass transit system as part of the CPEC. He said that the November 13 Kashgar-Gwadar Caravan that had carried goods from Kashgar to Gwadar had travelled on the Western route. He said that the establishment of this road link would slash the travel distance from Quetta to Gwadar from two days to eight hours.

However, a member of the committee from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Alhaj Shahji Gul Afridi expressed his reservations over the industrial zones. Talking to Business Recorder, he said that it was decided in the All Parties Conference (APC) that an industrial zone would also be established in the FATA, but this commitment is not being fulfilled. He said there is a dire need of economic activities for the people of the FATA, who are already on the front line in the war against terror. He said the people have been facing terrorism for many years. He said that there is a lot of unemployment in the tribal areas and the government should create job opportunities by establishing industrial zones there.

"The government is neither constructing link roads nor establishing economic zones in the FATA under the CPEC. We are going to launch a massive protest on this issue against the government," Gul Afridi added. In his remarks, Senator Mushahid Hussain welcomed the breakthrough made at the JCC meeting in Beijing and said that CPEC is already on the road of consolidation and 2017 would be the year of takeoff for the CPEC as all key projects in consultation with the provinces are being pursued according to the specific timeframe, adding that the impediments have been removed in this regard.

The members also underlined the need for exposing and countering any baseless propaganda against CPEC by forces inimical to the interests of Pakistan and Pakistan-China strategic partnership. On the recommendation of some of the members, it was decided that there would be a comprehensive briefing by the Ministry of Water & Power on the energy plan till 2020 as well as the construction of transmission lines by the NTDC for the evacuation of electricity.

 

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DIAMER-BHASHA DAM FACES DELAY AMID FUNDING HURDLE
Posted on September 14, 2017 by The M&A Arbitrageur
(ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN) – Federal Minister for Water Syed Javed Ali Shah on Thursday dropped a bombshell in the National Assembly by informing the House that construction of the Diamer-Bhasha Dam could not be started as yet due to non-arrangement of finances and the dam won’t be completed in the next 10 years due to the delay.

The key dam would cost around $12 billion. The statement was made contrary to the study conducted by the Chinese engineers who had informed Pakistan around in May that the dam would be constructed in nine years’ time. In May, the Planning Commission had announced to complete the dam in nine years.

Now the Water Ministry has hinted an inordinate delay in the dam’s construction, reflecting inordinate delay. In a written statement, the minister informed the House that in order to prepare financing strategy for the project, a committee has been constituted by the Water and Power Ministry, which will submit its recommendations to the Cabinet Committee on Energy for approval.

“The project has been bifurcated into two parts – the dam and the power generation part… However, land acquisition, construction of infrastructure or preliminary works i.e. project colony at the Thor Valley, the Composite Model Village-II at Harpan Das are in process,” the statement added.

In this regard, the statement added that the PC-I of the dam part has been submitted to the Planning Commission on March 24, 2107. “The PC-I for implementation of the power generation part will be submitted by the year 2020 after making progress on the dam construction,” the statement added.

“As per timeline given in the PC-I (dam part), the dam will be operational in about 10 years after commencement of work related to the construction,” the minister said. When contacted, an official source in the ministry informed Pakistan Today that the dam’s construction was not in sight due to non-serious approach and faulty strategy adopted to arrange financial assistance in this regard.

It merits mention here that the statement reflects a major discord between the Planning Commission and the ministry as according to the commission, the Chinese government had agreed to build the dam in shortest possible timeframe.

In May, Pakistan and China had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) of a roadmap for power projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that was signed by Water & Power Secretary Yousuf Naseem Khokhar and Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong.

Under the MoU, China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) would oversee building and funding of five dams including the Diamer-Bhasha, Pattan, Thakot, Bunji and Dasu. This would be China’s biggest-ever investment in Pakistan besides already committed projects worth $57 billion under the CPEC, the Planning Commission has said.

According to the official sources, the ministry had adopted a policy-shift in building of its hydroelectric reservouirs by inviting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as China’s private sector would be investing around $50 billion for several hydel power projects with regards to the North Indus River Cascade which also includes the Diamer-Bhasha Dam.

On the occasion, NEA hosted Diamer-Bhasha project conference at Beijing where heads and representatives of the power companies gave presentations on their study of the dam project and called for a deeper study on the project owing to its crucial nature for Pakistan. In this regard, the Water & Power secretary also gave a briefing to the Pakistani and Chinese delegations at Beijing soon after the MoU was signed.

In their feasibility survey, Chinese experts have identified the potential of producing up to 60,000 megawatts of hydroelectric power mostly in Gilgit-Baltistan region. Around 45,000 megawatts of this potential power has been identified the Indus River Cascade, which begins from Skardu in Gilgit-Baltistan and runs through Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

China’s NEA has been working on the roadmap of several hydel projects to help Pakistan meet its growing energy demands under the cooperation under the One Belt One Road initiative. According to documents available with Pakistan Today, Pakistan is eyeing around 4,500 megawatts generation only through the Diamer-Bhasha Dam.

Other than power generation, the dam would also provide water for agriculture sector which would largely help the country grow food stuff to under its food security plan.

Source: Pakistan Today