Diamer-Bhasha Dam: FCCI chief lauds approval of financial plan

President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI), Engineer Saeed Sheikh has welcomed the approval of financial plan for Diamer-Bhasha Dam by Prime Minister Nawaz Shareef. He has termed it a major milestone towards weeding out loadshedding by injecting cheap electricity in the national grid.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, he said that the PM has taken a bold initiative by directing to start work on this mega project from local resources. He said the prime minister has clearly directed that funds may be allocated for this project under Public Sector Development Progress (PSDP) immediately in order to start work on this project by the end of 2017.
This dam would also help government to bring vast tracks of barren lands under plough in the country as this 14 billion dollar project will have capacity to store 81 acre foot of sweet water in addition to generating 45000 megawatt of cheep hydel electricity. He said that government has made it clear that it was practically discouraging the production of costly thermal electricity which is directly affecting domestic as well as commercial consumers in addition to enhancing cost of doing business in Pakistan.
He appreciated the systematic way to bring down the cost of electricity by increasing the proportionate share of cheap hydel electricity in our overall energy mix. He expressed concern that Asian Development Bank has regretted to fund this project which has given a bad message to the other donors despite of the financial and economic viability of this project.