ISLAMABAD
The government is considering Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode for the construction of much needed Diamer Bhasha Dam, as the government would share some responsibilities with the private investors at development and execution stage.
Chairman Wapda Zafara Mahmood has presented the proposal of PPP mode for Diamer Bhasha Dam in a meeting chaired by Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar. The government is struggling to arrange funds for the construction of the much needed dam that could generate around 4500 megawatt electricity.
According to the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2014-15, the overall cost of Diamer Bhasha Dam is Rs 826 billion. Therefore, the government could not afford to complete the project on its resources and it would have to go for PPP mode.
Chairman Wapda Zafar Mahmood briefed the Finance Minister that the past experience of project development through PPIB shows that private investors short listed for development of hydel power projects could not achieve financial close as schedule due to lengthy procedures involved. In order to remove the obstacles and impediments, Chairman Wapda suggested for fast track development of the projects under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
The Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif said that the Ministry is making efforts to enhance power generation in order to reduce supply and demand gap. He emphasised hydel led energy mix which can provide cheaper electricity to the public.
The Finance Minister said that one year back, everybody including international financial institutions was talking of either Dasu or Diamer Bhasha Dam. After coming into power, the government studied both the options and decided to go ahead with both Dasu and Diamer Bhasha at the same time. He further declared that the government will undertake Bunji, Pattan, thahkot, Monda, and Dasu II projects too. He said that in line with the vision of the PML-N leadership, we will concentrate on generating cheap electricity. He added that combined with Dasu, Diamer and coal based projects; we will eventually phase out costly thermal generation resulting in reduction of import bill.
The Finance Minister said that we will invite private sector in the energy projects while giving them reasonable upfront tariff. He directed the Chairman Wapda to prepare the whole model in the light of decisions taken in the meeting for final presentation to the Prime Minister. He expressed his optimism that international investors will be interested in investment opportunities in Pakistan providing promising returns.
The government is considering Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode for the construction of much needed Diamer Bhasha Dam, as the government would share some responsibilities with the private investors at development and execution stage.
Chairman Wapda Zafara Mahmood has presented the proposal of PPP mode for Diamer Bhasha Dam in a meeting chaired by Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar. The government is struggling to arrange funds for the construction of the much needed dam that could generate around 4500 megawatt electricity.
According to the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2014-15, the overall cost of Diamer Bhasha Dam is Rs 826 billion. Therefore, the government could not afford to complete the project on its resources and it would have to go for PPP mode.
Chairman Wapda Zafar Mahmood briefed the Finance Minister that the past experience of project development through PPIB shows that private investors short listed for development of hydel power projects could not achieve financial close as schedule due to lengthy procedures involved. In order to remove the obstacles and impediments, Chairman Wapda suggested for fast track development of the projects under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
The Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif said that the Ministry is making efforts to enhance power generation in order to reduce supply and demand gap. He emphasised hydel led energy mix which can provide cheaper electricity to the public.
The Finance Minister said that one year back, everybody including international financial institutions was talking of either Dasu or Diamer Bhasha Dam. After coming into power, the government studied both the options and decided to go ahead with both Dasu and Diamer Bhasha at the same time. He further declared that the government will undertake Bunji, Pattan, thahkot, Monda, and Dasu II projects too. He said that in line with the vision of the PML-N leadership, we will concentrate on generating cheap electricity. He added that combined with Dasu, Diamer and coal based projects; we will eventually phase out costly thermal generation resulting in reduction of import bill.
The Finance Minister said that we will invite private sector in the energy projects while giving them reasonable upfront tariff. He directed the Chairman Wapda to prepare the whole model in the light of decisions taken in the meeting for final presentation to the Prime Minister. He expressed his optimism that international investors will be interested in investment opportunities in Pakistan providing promising returns.
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