Gomal Zam Dam is the first ever mega project in water sector constructed in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas(Fata).
ISLAMABAD: The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) has successfully completed construction of the 17.4 megawatt (MW) Gomal Zam power house, a component of the Gomal Zam Dam Project.
Gomal Zam Dam is the first ever mega project in water sector constructed in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), says a press release by Wapda. The power house is currently on a test run and will start providing electricity to the national grid in a month.
Gomal Zam Dam, located in the South Waziristan agency, consists of three main components including the dam itself, a power house, and an irrigation system. The dam was completed last year, the power house this year, while the irrigation system is at the advanced stage of completion.
With a gross storage capacity of the project is 1.14 million acre feet of water the dam can be used to irrigate 163,000 acres of land. The power house will contribute 91 million units of electricity annually to the system, which is sufficient to supply power to about 25,000 households.
The Gomal Zam project is of immense importance for socioeconomic uplift of the populace of remote areas, particularly in Fata and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) had provided $40 million to help complete the main dam and the power house. Another $40 million are also being provided by the USAID for completion of irrigation component of the project.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 28th, 2013.
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@Hataf Shahab: What last government. The bid for this project took place in 2003. Government's budget was 7.5 Billion PKR. Tekser, a Turkish Construction Company gave the price of 8.5 billion negotiable, whereas Chinese gave 4 billion for the same project. Guess what, they awarded it to China. Later on, this project was suspended for a while. Chinese later demanded that they are increasing the price for this project, one which Tekser sued WAPDA. WAPDA than divided the project into four parts and awarded both the parties with two parts each. Dam and Power House was awarded to Chinese and Water Reservoir and Link canals awarded to Turks. After some years, the work again started on this small project in around 2008, and finally finished. Bottom Line, it should have been completed in 2005. We paid around 10 times more.
@hataf. i guess u should tahnk d usaid ntd last govt.
Thanks to the last Govt.