Diamer-Bhasha Dam will be part of CPEC, says Ahsan Iqbal

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ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal Monday said that Diamer-Bhasha Dam would also be part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). He said that 11,000MW of electricity would be added to the national grid by 2018, 5,000MW under the CPEC and 6,000MW under non-CPEC projects.

The minister said this while briefing the Parliamentary Committee on CPEC which met under the chairmanship of Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed here at the Parliament House. He briefed the committee on recently concluded 6th meeting of the Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) in Beijing on December 28-29, 2016, which was attended by chief ministers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Sindh, Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan.

During the briefing, Ahsan Iqbal said that they have achieved a total consensus among the provinces on way forward of the CPEC where the Bhasha Dam would also be part of the CPEC, adding that 11,000MW of electricity would be added to the national grid by 2018. He said that this is the biggest energy investment in the history of Pakistan.

Ahsan Iqbal told the committee that for the first time, Thar Coal, which has a huge capacity, would be used for electricity generation for the next 400 years. He added that two transmission lines, Matiari-Lahore and Matiari-Faisalabad, are being installed which would evacuate electricity from south and will be connected to the national grid benefiting all parts of the country.

Moreover, there was an agreement on giving priority to the construction of the western route of the CPEC as well as up-gradation and dualisation of Karachi-Torkham railway line at the cost of $8 billion. This would be the biggest railway modernisation project in the history of Pakistan, he added.

The minister informed the parliamentary committee that industrial zones proposed by the provinces as well as Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan have been accepted and proper feasibility of industrial zones as well as of an additional port at Ketti Bandar, proposed by the Sindh government, would be carried out. He said the all four provincial capitals, Lahore, Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar would have rail-based mass transit system as part of the CPEC. He said that the November 13 Kashgar-Gwadar Caravan that had carried goods from Kashgar to Gwadar had traveled on the Western route. He said that the establishment of this road link would slash the travel distance from Quetta to Gwadar from two days to eight hours.

However, a member of the committee from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Alhaj Shahji Gul Afridi expressed his reservations over the industrial zones.

Talking to Business Recorder, he said that it was decided in the All Parties Conference (APC) that an industrial zone would also be established in the FATA, but this commitment is not being fulfilled. He said there is a dire need of economic activities for the people of the FATA, who are already on the front line in the war against terror. He said the people have been facing terrorism for many years. He said that there is a lot of unemployment in the tribal areas and the government should create job opportunities by establishing industrial zones there.

The government is neither constructing link roads nor establishing economic zones in the FATA under the CPEC. We are going to launch a massive protest on this issue against the government, Gul Afridi added.

In his remarks, Senator Mushahid Hussain welcomed the breakthrough made at the JCC meeting in Beijing and said that CPEC is already on the road of consolidation and 2017 would be the year of takeoff for the CPEC as all key projects in consultation with the provinces are being pursued according to the specific timeframe, adding that the impediments have been removed in this regard.

The members also underlined the need for exposing and countering any baseless propaganda against CPEC by forces inimical to the interests of Pakistan and Pakistan-China strategic partnership.

On the recommendation of some of the members, it was decided that there would be a comprehensive briefing by the Ministry of Water & Power on the energy plan till 2020 as well as the construction of transmission lines by the NTDC for the evacuation of electricity.