Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif approved in principle the financing plan for Diamer Basha Dam presented by Secretary Water & Power. This innovative proposal on self reliance basis to fund the Dam portion of the project from PSDP allocations and WAPDA generated resources while the rest of the financing for the power generation portion will be arranged on commercial basis by the Ministry either through WAPDA or through leasing its existing projects. The Prime Minister approved the proposal in principle and asked Secretary Water & Power, Secretary planning and Secretary finance to expedite completion of financial proposal and Secretary water and power to start the preparations so that the physical work on the Dam is started before the end of 2017.
Diamer Basha Dam was approved for construction by CCI in the year 2009. The efforts to finance it through multilateral donors have been taking a longer time and Pakistan needs to enhance its storage capacity urgently to meet the challenge of becoming a water scarce country. The storage capacity in the existing Dams is fast deleting due to silting and the country losing on its agricultural production after every few years due to a dry season, needs to be overcome by constructing more storages.
Diamer Basha Dam will provide 8.1 MAF of gross storage of which 6.4 MAF will be the live storage and a capacity to produce 4500 MWs of cheap and clean energy.The Prime Minister also appreciated the fact that the land acquisition for the Dam has been completed with the efforts of the Ministry and the GB administration.
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