Businessmen suggest listing dam on domestic, world stock markets

So far only Rs3b has been donated to the dam fund

MULTAN: The business community of south Punjab has proposed the government to adopt diverse options like listing the Diamer-Bhasha dam in domestic and international stock markets to generate funds. It further suggested that investors should be made shareholders for construction of the dam and government should provide guarantees to attract investment.



Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) President Malik Asrar Ahmed Awan said that by introducing shares of Diamer-Bhasha dam in the said markets, the government could earn billions of dollars as this is one of the most attractive projects for investors.



So far only Rs3 billion have been donated for the dam fund and its construction requires around Rs1,500 billion, the business community has suggested the government to seek investments instead of relying solely on donations for the huge project. Experts said that the Diamer-Bhasha dam is a multipurpose project aimed at water storage, flood mitigation and power generation.  The project will generate 4,500MW of electricity with annual energy generation of more than 18 billion units of low-cost and environment-friendly electricity.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2018.

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