Abdul Wajid Khan

The government has informed the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Economic Affairs Division (EAD) that the Dasu Hydropower Project is likely to be completed by May 31, 2024, if all hurdles in the implementation are resolved smoothly, reports WealthPk.

A meeting of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on the Economic Affairs Division was held under the Chairmanship of Mian Najeeb ud Din Awaisi, in the Committee Room of the EAD, Pak Secretariat, Islamabad.

The Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs briefed the Committee regarding the top 3 problematic projects related to the Federal Energy and Water Sector, including Dasu Hydropower Stage-I project, Jamshoro Power Generation Project, and Transmission Modernization Project Phase I.

He informed the committee that the Dasu Hydropower (Phase-I) project was signed on 25 August, 2014 and its closing date was 30 June, 2022, which was revised to 31 May, 2022.

He said that funds committed for the project amount to $588.40 million, out of which $313.00 has been disbursed.

The project has been delayed for almost 7 years due to delay in land acquisition, which was caused by incomplete land record, illegal construction, and inadequate security at project site, among other factors.

The cost of land acquisition increased from Rs. 19 billion to Rs. 37 billion.

Other factors include delay in fulfilment of the covenant on operational health safety and slow decision making on the part of WAPDA.

The committee was informed that, according to the initial plan, the project was expected to be completed in June 2022, but due to delays, a new date for the completion of the project has been fixed for May 31, 2024.

He said the federal and provincial governments and relevant departments are responsible for the delay in the project. He said that usually hydropower projects can be completed in five years, but there were loopholes in the system that needed to be addressed.

The committee decided to visit the Dasu Hydropower Stage I project to see the physical progress on the project and the state of issues.

The Joint Secretary of EAD informed the committee that the Jamshoro Power Generation Project for the installation of a 600 MW supercritical coal-fired unit was signed on 12 February, 2014 with an original closing date of 31 March, 2019 and a revised closing date of 30 June, 2023.

The Asian Development Bank has committed to finance $684.454 million, out of which $4410.819 million has been disbursed.

The issues related to the project include purchase of 100 acres land as ash pond land and signing of Engineering, Procurement and Construction contract for LOT-II of the project.

The Provincial Cabinet of Sindh deferred the case of the purchase of Ash Disposal Land with the direction that a fresh clearance report from Sindh Environmental Protection Agency be submitted as the previous one was provided in 2014, which will require a further 4-6 months.

The decision regarding the signing of the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction contract for Unit II is pending at the Ministry of Energy (Power Division).

The Committee recommended that the government should decide, without further loss of time, whether or not to install Jamshoro Power Generation Project Lot II.

Joint Secretary of EAD further informed the committee that the National Transmission Modernization Project was initiated to increase capacity and reliability of the National Transmission System and modernize key business processes of NTDC.

The signing date of the project was 13-6-2018 and its closing date is 31-01-2024 with a cost of $424 million, out of which $36.1 million has been disbursed, while non disbursed funds amount to $ 388.90 million.

The Committee was informed that the project was delayed due to late hiring of consultants and project management staff, delay in awarding of contracts, and land acquisition issues for Islamabad West. Furthermore, it was recommended that the project management unit staff must be hired or appointed purely on a merit basis and that the staff should be placed in the project from the beginning of the project till its end.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk