The government is likely to start civil construction work on the much-awaited Mohmand Dam by next week.

The Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Water Resources was informed that construction work on much-awaited Mohmand Dam should start from next week.

Speaking to the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Water Resources met with Nawab Muhammad Yousuf Talpur in the chair.

WAPDA Chairman Muzammil Hussain, said,

We had targeted to start work on it in March 2019, and now we have reached that point to formally commence work on it next week.

While talking about the negative propaganda against these mega water and power projects, he said,

We have no issue now in land acquisition for Mohmand Dam and it has been completely resolved. We have started mobilizing machinery and contractors, and by next week we would start construction on Mohmand Dam.

The total cost of the Diamer-Bhasha dam is around Rs. 1,400 billion. Out of this, initially, part of the construction of the reservoir would cost Rs. 474 billion, in which the government would have to provide Rs. 232 billion while the remaining amount will be arranged by WAPDA.

The chairman told the committee that for Dasu Dam, the government had acquired 744-acre of land.

He further said that since Diamer-Bhasa dam’s construction was delayed a little, and will commence in August 2019. Rs. 15 billion of that have been re-appropriated to Mohmand dam to speedily start work on the latter.

On the Tarbela-V (T-V) too, the government will begin work with the support of the World Bank.

In the past, propaganda and negative perceptions had been generated against these dams, but those were not based on evidence.

Furthermore, he said that these dam sites were “hydraulically and geologically” suitable, and have been proven “perfectly suitable by top water and dam experts”.

Wapda chairman said that land has already been transferred to the dam by the locals, while land for the reservoir (catchment) will be completed by December 2019. The project was delayed for five decades, but now the critical land has been acquired.

The contract for construction has been awarded to a joint venture of M/S CGGC of China and Descon of Pakistan.

The appropriation of federal PSDP allocation of Rs. 17 billion for the fiscal year 2018/19 has been approved and Wapda’s equity of Rs. 684 million has already been injected.

Preliminary work has already commenced on site by Wapda since January 2019. Consultants and contractors will also be mobilized at the site next week, he said.

The committee was told that the earlier estimated cost of Mohmand was Rs. 309 billion in its PC-I, but after the latest estimates the price cost has come down to Rs. 291 billion.

For the difference of Rs18 billion, we have requested the government to sanction it to WAPDA, as it can construct another dam in Balochistan with this money.

Regarding Diamer Basha Dam, WAPDA chairman said that land distribution and boundary issue between KP and Gilgit-Baltistan had also been resolved and around 90 percent of the land had been acquired.

The Wapda chairman further informed that the government was responsible to resettle the people; however, now it has been decided to pay a higher price for the land and allow people to resettle anywhere they want.