Land acquisition cost of Basha Dam rises to Rs32bn

[LRE]

Land acquisition cost of Basha Dam rises to Rs32bn



Saturday, February 27, 2010
By Mansoor Ahmad

LAHORE: The escalation of land acquisition rates by Diamer Chilas district administration from the original estimates incorporated in 2008 PC1 for the Diamer Basha dam has escalated its land acquisition cost by Rs32 billion.

The News has learnt in the PC-1 submitted to the government in October 2008 for the construction of the dam the land acquisition cost was based on the rates conveyed by the Deputy Commissioner Diamer/Chilas.

The cost of land acquisition was Rs23 billion. However, in August 2009 the DC Diamer/Chilas notified highly escalated rates increasing the land acquisition cost to Rs50.7 billion. It was found that the rate of commercial land was increased from Rs330,000-638,000 per acre in 2008 to Rs1-1.3 million per acre in 2009 by the district administration of the area.

About 96 acres of commercial land would be affected due to construction of the dam and its acquisition cost has jumped from Rs490 million to Rs883 million in one year.

Similarly, the cost of cultivated land was increased from 300,000-580,000 in 2008 to Rs1-1.3 million almost doubling the acquisition cost to over Rs25 billion. Barren land that was valued by the DC Diamer/Chillas in 2008 at Rs100,000-193,000 per acre was increased to Rs138,000-266000. The total land acquisition cost has increased from a little less than Rs23 billion in August 2008 to Rs50.7 billion a year later.

This is a staggering increase in the value of property by over 130 per cent in one year. The amount would further increase to over Rs58 billion if the compulsory acquisition compensation of 15 per cent over the value assessed by the DC is factored in. In PC-1 this amount was Rs26.4 billion. The increased cost is besides the remaining cost of Rs37 billion meant for compensation of households, constructed property, trees, resettlement of the affected persons and development of model villages.

The News has learnt that this unusual increase in land acquisition cost has put the Diamer Basha project in to jeopardy. He federal government it was learnt was already facing difficulty in arranging finances for this multi-billion dollar project. However some creditable donor institutions were convinced about the feasibility of the project on the basis of PC-1.

They have agreed in principle to finance the project although formal announcement in this regard has been withheld. The government negotiators are at loss how to convince the donor agency about an increase of $400 million in the cost because of higher land acquisition cost. The ugly demonstrations at Chillas on February 18, 2010 that resulted in loss of life and property were related to the land acquisition and compensation issue.

The demonstration has wiped out the entire office of the agency responsible for managing the construction of the dam. It has created a security concern that would discourage highly qualified professionals to work at the dam site.

The News has learnt that the 15 room hostel housing the technical staff including drawing room and a high tech laboratory was completely burnt. Shuttering and construction material belonging to the contractors was looted. The most damaging loss was the destruction of boxes containing different types of rocks collected from the dam sit. The personal belonging of the officers residing in the hostel were looted. Ten computers, fax and telephone and other office equipment was taken away by the looter. The mob also burnt the 25 KWA generator, 200 KWA transformer and security guard quarter.

The Diamer Basha Dam is located on Indus River, about 315 kms upstream of Tarbela Dam, 165 kms downstream of the Northern Area capital Gilgit and 40 kms downstream of Chilas. The proposed dam would have a maximum height of 270 meters, and impound a reservoir of about 7,500,000 acre feet, with live storage of more than 6,400,000 acre feet.

Mean annual discharge of Indus River at the site is 50,000,000 acre feet. Thus the dam will impound 15 per cent of the annual river flow. The dam project would cover an area of 110 km and extend 100 km upstream of the dam site up to Raikot Bridge on Karakoram Highway (KKH).


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