ECNEC approves 24 projects including Diamer-Basha Dam

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Committee asks authorities to resolve demarcation, royalty and displacement issues in three months

By Ijaz Kakakhel

ISLAMABAD: The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Thursday approved 24 mega projects including the Diamer-Bhasha Dam.

The committee also gave relevant authorities three months to resolve issues related to demarcation and royalty of the dam.

The total cost of the Diamer-Bhasha project is Rs 894.257 billion and the dam would take eight to 10 years to complete.

Talking to reporters after the ECNEC meeting, federal ministers Qamar Zaman Kaira and Raja Pervez Ashraf said the government was working on war footing to resolve the energy crisis in the country. Calling the dam “a lifeline”, they said it would generate 4,500 megawatts (MW) of electricity and would be able to store 6.4 million acre feet of water.

They said several other hydropower projects would be announced in the near future, which would help the government generate power required to meet future demand.

“The dam will prove to be a lifeline project and will meet the country’s agricultural, as well as power requirements,” they added.

Sources said the ECNEC meeting discussed other modalities regarding the project.

They said the NWFP had already raised the issue of net hydel profit with the federal government and that was the reason ECNEC had sought the resolution of the dam’s royalty, before work on the project began.

To a question, Kaira said the issue of net hydel profit of the NWFP province was being settled out of court and the prime minister had already established a committee for resolving the matter.

He said the same committee would resolve the royalty issue of Diamer-Basha Dam with representatives of the National Assembly, the NWFP government and the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA).

The federal water and power minister said availability of water would be the major issue in the future and the government was committed to resolving it through construction of more dams.

He said the capacity of Tarbela and Mangla dams was reduced by 25 to 30 percent due to siltation, adding that international financial institutions were ready to finance the dam. He denied that the Asian Development Bank had attached conditions for financing the project.

The ministers said the people displaced from the project area would be compensated, adding that the government would provide employment to them.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2009_pg7_1