China offers labour for construction of Bhasha Dam

[LRE]

China offers labour for construction of Bhasha Dam

By Zafar Bhutta

ISLAMABAD: The Chinese government has offered Pakistan to provide skilled labour for the construction of the Bhasha Dam, sources told Daily Times Tuesday.

Chinese government has conveyed to Pakistani government that it has 17,000 skilled labourers who worked on three Gorges Dams in China and these dams were generating 30,000MW electricity. It had also informed Pakistan that these labourers could be provided to construct Basha Diamer Dam.

Sources said China has agreed to provide financing for the construction of the project and Pakistan has provided a draft of detailed engineering design to seek comments for financing from China. They said China has also assured that it would hire a company to provide financing to Pakistan for the construction of the dam. China Development Bank has also agreed to provide the financing. However, Chinese government has sought the final detailed engineering design of the dam so that it could determine the volume of the financing, sources added.

German Company Lemhyer, which is working on the detailed engineering design of the dam is expected to issue the final detailed engineering designs by June 30, 2008. The German company, in draft of detailed engineering design of the dam, has projected the cost of the dam at $8.5 billion against earlier estimated cost of $6.5 billion in year 2005. “Government wants to start the construction work on Bhasha dam by the year 2009,” sources added.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) and China could emerge as the main financers of the dam as they both have conveyed to Pakistan to provide financing for the dam. However, Pakistan has placed request for funding before the Chinese government but it is still to table formal request for loan before ADB. Government has allocated Rs 200 million in Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2008-09 for Basha dam.

The government had allocated Rs 2.6 billion in the PSDP 2007-08 that had been lapsed due to non-utilisation and now during 2008-09 federal government would arrange the money from the commercial banks for land acquisition of Basha dam. Sources said that allocation of Rs 2.6 billion was made for the initial work on all dams including Kalabagh, Akori and Munda, however; now this money would be diverted to invest on Basha dam. Sources said that federal government has also asked Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) to generate Rs 35 billion from different sources for the work on four big dams including Akori, Munda and major focus would be on the construction of Basha dam.

Sources said that government has started work to develop infrastructure for communication link of Basha dam and in this regard the work on a Karakuram highway to link Bhasha dam was also in progress. This highway would be upgraded at cost of Rs 11.578 billion and government has released Rs 2 billion for the said project during the financial year 2007-08.

According to the initial draft of the detailed engineering design, 4,500MW electricity would be generated through Bhasha dam project. The German Company has recommended setting up four hydropower stations of 1,150MW under Bhasha Diamer Dam Project for the royalty to North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Northern Areas. The company has also indicated that 27,000 families would be affected by the construction of the Bhasha dam. The company has recommended setting up nine model villages near Gilgat to accommodate these affected families.


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