The project will generate 4,500MW electricity and provide at least 16,000 jobs
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday kicked off construction work at the Diamer-Bhasha dam in Pakistan Administered Kashmir, notwithstanding India’s objection to the China-backed mega project.
Addressing a public gathering in Chilas in Gilgit-Baltistan, Mr. Khan said the Diamer-Bhasha will be Pakistan’s third largest dam after Tarbela and Mangla dams.
The project will generate 4,500MW electricity and provide at least 16,000 jobs. It is expected to be completed by 2028.
The Pakistan government in May signed a whopping ₹442 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 Diamer-Bhasha dam.
Chinese state-run firm China Power holds 70% and the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), a commercial arm of the Armed Forces of Pakistan, 30% share in the consortium that will build the dam.
Pakistan’s Council of Common Interests (CCI) approved the project for construction in 2010, but it suffered delays because of international lending agencies which remained associated with the project but later backtracked because of opposition from India as major part of the dam is located in Gilgit-Baltistan.
In his address, Mr. Khan lamented that building of this dam was delayed while the previous governments started building thermal power stations.
“The decision to build this dam was taken 50 years ago. There can be no better site for constructing a dam, it is a natural dam. Forty, 50 years ago this was decided, and work on the project has begun today,” he said.
He announced plans to build more dams on rivers to get cheap energy and decrease the pressure on foreign exchange to buy foreign fuel.
The completion of the dam would increase Pakistan’s storage capacity from 30 to 48 days and make power generation facilities an attractive future investment by the private sector to add 4,500MW of additional electricity to the national grid, according to a report in Dawn newspaper in May.
Prime Minister Khan said that hydropower projects would also be helpful to reduce global warming.
He was accompanied by Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hamid besides Minister for Water Faisal Vawda and other senior officials.