KKH realignment issue: Wapda tells PC to take a hike

[LahoreEstate]

ISLAMABAD: Refusing to budge from its earlier stance, Wapda has turned down Planning Commission’s decision regarding the realignment of 34 km of Karakoram Highway and has decided that the National Highway Authority (NHA) will execute the KKH Bypass required for $11.3 billion Diamer-Bhasha dam, a senior official told The News.

“The Planning Commission headed by Sardar Assef Ahmad Ali in the last CDWP meeting decided that Wapda would itself complete the KKH realignment project as the NHA had revised upwards the cost of the project manifold,” the senior official said.

The official said that Wapda in its stance had rejected the decision of the Planning Commission and had decided that the NHA would execute the said project, saying, it required expertise to initiate and execute the project.

Chairman Wapda Shakil Durrani confirmed that Wapda wanted the NHA to complete this gigantic project of paramount importance and to this effect he had appointed a ‘point man’ from Wapda, who would supervise the project at every stage starting from International Competitive Bidding (ICB) to the execution of the project so that it might be ensured that the cost of the project remained at reasonable level.

To a question, he said that KKH bypass from Shatial to Thore would cost Rs3.8 billion. Responding to a query pertaining to Bhasha Dam funding he said that Wapda had sent its draft to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) seeking a loan of $4 billion to $5 billion.

Mentioning the terms sheet of Aid Memoir from the ADB, he said that to qualify for the required loan, the government would have to get the project approved from the Parliament through consensus resolution, and to this effect Wapda would move the Parliament within two months.

Wapda has also suggested to the government to table the Diamer-Bhasha dam project before the Council of Common Interests (CCI), which was recently reconstituted by the President. Besides the Parliament, the CCI is also the constitutional forum to take up this project for approval.

He also unveiled that the ADB also wanted the resettlement policy to be made transparent and improved particularly keeping in view the social issues, and to this effect Wapda had created the slot of general manager for Resettlement and Land Issues as Wapda had given ads to appoint the person having relevant experience with international repute on this post.

Durrani said that formal work on the Diamer-Bhasha Dam would start in October 2010 and contribute $2.1 billion to the economy every year.

To a question, he said the country would get 16 billion electricity units from Bhasha Dam; and because of this dam, the 1.8 billion additional electricity units from Terbela would increase, which under the cascading effect would help increase the generation capacity of 10 per cent of Ghazi Barotha Hydropower Project and 10 per cent of Chashma Hydropower project.

Mentioning the tariff of electricity to be generated by Bhahsa Dam, Durrani said that there were three scenarios and if the loan of the dam was paid back in 30 years, its tariff would be at Rs2.90 a unit and in case it was to be paid in 25 years, its tariff would be at Rs3.08 a unit and if it was to be paid in 15 years, its tariff would then be at Rs4.04 a unit and even in this case economic internal rate of return (EIRR) would be at 16.4 per cent, which was even better and the EIRR must be above 12 per cent.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=23769