War footing: K-P, federal govt to work together on dam project
Federal water resources minister, provincial chief minister to meet again later in Nov
PHOTO: FILE
PESHAWAR:
The federal government on Tuesday ended a deadlock and finally sat down with the provincial government to resolve issues pertaining to the 4,320 megawatts (MW) Dasu Dam being built in the Kohistan district and decided to complete the project on a war footing.
In this regards, Federal Water Resources Minister Faisal Vawda along with officials from the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) discussed issues pertaining to the construction of the $4.28 billion dam with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) chief minister Mahmood Khan at the Chief Minister House in Peshawar on Tuesday.
After the meeting, the federal minister used a news briefing to take aim at the former federal government led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for delays in constructing the dam.
He claimed that the delay is causing the federal government to lose Rs300 million per day, while the provincial government was losing around Rs40 million per day.
“The project has been delayed for several years and it has caused losses worth billions of rupees to the federal government and to the government of K-P as well,” Vawda said. He, however, stopped short of explaining how he had determined the loss figures.
Vawda went on to note that a meeting between the federal government and the K-P chief minister had been put off for around four years. In contrast, the federal minister said that they have set November 30 as the next date of the meeting.
He went on to claim that the Nawaz Sharif government had deliberately delayed this project.
“They [PML-N) did not want the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in K-P to get credit for it [Dasu dam],” he explained.
But with the PTI now holding power in both K-P and in the centre, the federal minister nonchalantly said that they do not care for credit, instead, they were more interested in serving the public interest and in the larger benefits promised by the project.
Asked about financing issues for the project given how the prime minister had cried hoarse about empty coffers, Vawda dismissed them, stating that there was no issue of funding for the dam.
He added that they would not need to go to the federal government seeking additional funds for the project since the World Bank had expressed an interest in the dam’s construction.
Regarding his meeting with Mahmood, Vawda said that he was satisfied with the response he had received from the provincial government, particularly from the chief minister regarding the construction of the dam.
He assured that the federal government will extend any and all support as and when required.
K-P chief minister Mehmood Khan called the dam crucial for both the centre and K-P.
He directed authorities to remove all hindrance from the project pertaining to its land acquisition and other requirements. Mahmood also appreciated Vawda’s interest in the conservation of reporting and investigative sources and in this regard, Mahmood said that the provincial and federal government must work together as a team.
Moreover, he said there were a host of other hydel power projects in the province for which the previous government had already signed agreements with the Frontier Works Organization (FWO).
“In the tenure of the last government, we did not get any cooperation from the federal government but now luckily, both the provincial and the federal governments were of PTI, thus there will be no problems like those in the past,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 7th, 2018.
The federal government on Tuesday ended a deadlock and finally sat down with the provincial government to resolve issues pertaining to the 4,320 megawatts (MW) Dasu Dam being built in the Kohistan district and decided to complete the project on a war footing.
In this regards, Federal Water Resources Minister Faisal Vawda along with officials from the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) discussed issues pertaining to the construction of the $4.28 billion dam with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) chief minister Mahmood Khan at the Chief Minister House in Peshawar on Tuesday.
After the meeting, the federal minister used a news briefing to take aim at the former federal government led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for delays in constructing the dam.
He claimed that the delay is causing the federal government to lose Rs300 million per day, while the provincial government was losing around Rs40 million per day.
“The project has been delayed for several years and it has caused losses worth billions of rupees to the federal government and to the government of K-P as well,” Vawda said. He, however, stopped short of explaining how he had determined the loss figures.
Vawda went on to note that a meeting between the federal government and the K-P chief minister had been put off for around four years. In contrast, the federal minister said that they have set November 30 as the next date of the meeting.
He went on to claim that the Nawaz Sharif government had deliberately delayed this project.
“They [PML-N) did not want the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in K-P to get credit for it [Dasu dam],” he explained.
But with the PTI now holding power in both K-P and in the centre, the federal minister nonchalantly said that they do not care for credit, instead, they were more interested in serving the public interest and in the larger benefits promised by the project.
Asked about financing issues for the project given how the prime minister had cried hoarse about empty coffers, Vawda dismissed them, stating that there was no issue of funding for the dam.
He added that they would not need to go to the federal government seeking additional funds for the project since the World Bank had expressed an interest in the dam’s construction.
Regarding his meeting with Mahmood, Vawda said that he was satisfied with the response he had received from the provincial government, particularly from the chief minister regarding the construction of the dam.
He assured that the federal government will extend any and all support as and when required.
K-P chief minister Mehmood Khan called the dam crucial for both the centre and K-P.
He directed authorities to remove all hindrance from the project pertaining to its land acquisition and other requirements. Mahmood also appreciated Vawda’s interest in the conservation of reporting and investigative sources and in this regard, Mahmood said that the provincial and federal government must work together as a team.
Moreover, he said there were a host of other hydel power projects in the province for which the previous government had already signed agreements with the Frontier Works Organization (FWO).
“In the tenure of the last government, we did not get any cooperation from the federal government but now luckily, both the provincial and the federal governments were of PTI, thus there will be no problems like those in the past,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 7th, 2018.