‘Construction of Dasu project to begin within a week’

WAPDA chairman visits site, reviews progress on infrastructure development

LAHORE: In a significant development towards moving to indigenous hydropower resources, construction work on the 4,320MW Dasu hydropower project will commence within a week, as the contractor for civil works has been mobilised to the project site.

This was stated by Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) Chairman Muzammil Hussain, during his visit to review progress on the preliminary works of infrastructure development in the project area and the resettlement activities leading towards socio-economic uplift of the local populace.



Hussain said that the commencement of Dasu hydropower project's construction is going to be a good omen for the development of hydropower potential in the country, as this project is being constructed by leveraging Wapda's financial strength.

Out of the $4.2 billion required for completion of Stage-I of Dasu hydropower project, the World Bank is providing a credit of $824 million, while the rest of the amount is being arranged by Wapda from various commercial sources and ploughing its own revenue surplus.

Expressing satisfaction over the financial arrangement for construction of the project, the chairman said that last week Wapda successfully ventured into the international financial market on its own independent standing to secure $350 million at a very competitive rate, unprecedented tenure of 10 years and a staggered drawdown to suit the project's financing requirements.

This amount has been raised with partial guarantee of World Bank and the rest by the government of Pakistan. "This successful financing is a testament of the confidence reposed by the international financial institutions on the creditworthiness of Wapda," said Hussain.

Apart from this, Wapda had already arranged local financing for the project worth Rs144 billion from a consortium of local banks, he added.



Dasu is a vital development project not only for the country but also for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, as the project will stabilise the economy of Pakistan by providing low-cost hydel electricity besides ushering in a new era of socio-economic development in the backward and far-flung areas of K-P.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2017.

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