Diamer-Bhasha Dam: Site for construction made feasible by diverting direction of river, Senate body told

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Water Resources told the Senate Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Special Initiatives that the direction of the river has been diverted for the construction of Diamer-Bhasha Dam.

The Standing Committee met with Senator Quratul Ain Marri in the chair at the Parliament House, Islamabad on Friday.

During the briefing, the Ministry of Water Resources told the committee that the site for the construction of Diamer-Bhasha Dam has been made feasible by diverting the direction of the river. It was told that as many as 11 development projects are related to hydropower.

The official of the Ministry of Water Resources told the committee that there are 56 ongoing development project in which 13 projects will be completed this year.

The committee was also briefed about the projects of K-IV, Diamer-Bhasha Dam, Dasu Dam and Kuchi Canal. The committee was requested to inform the provinces to develop the combined area.

The Cabinet Division briefed the committee on various projects for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and said that Rs 75 billion have been earmarked for the projects.

Officials of the Ministry of Communications briefed the committee on the development projects.

On which, the chairperson committee directed that the details of the ongoing and new projects in all the provinces should be provided to the committee. She directed that the details of the funds allocated for these projects should be presented in the next meeting of the committee.

The chairperson and members of the committee also reviewed the progress on the Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway project and directed to speed up the pace of work on this important project.

In the second session of the meeting, the development projects of various ministries were reviewed in detail.

Officials of the Ministry of Defense told the committee that the Ministry of Defense has a total of 15 projects, of which nine are ongoing schemes and six are new projects.

The Higher Education Commission officials told the committee that HEC has a total of 159 development projects out of which 34 will be completed this year. As many as 74 projects are at the next stage, five are foreign funding projects. The committee was informed that there are also nine different scholarship schemes for higher education.

Officials of the Ministry of Housing and Works told the Standing Committee that there are a total of 161 projects out of which 22 are new projects with an estimated cost of Rs 46 billion. They said that the government allocated Rs 27.88 billion for the coming fiscal year 2024-25. The committee was told that 80 percent work has been done on 14 projects while 60 percent work has been done on 118 projects. They said that a total of 15 percent of the fund has been allocated for new projects.

The committee directed that priority should be given to the ongoing projects and efforts should be made to complete at least 30 percent of these projects, then new projects should be started.

The meeting of the Standing Committee was attended by senators, Jam Saifullah Khan, Shahadat Awan, Dr Afnanullah Khan and senior officials of the relevant ministries.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024