Power generation from Pakistan's Dasu Hydropower Project Stage-I to begin by end of 2026

According to the briefing given to WAPDA Chairman Lt-Gen (Retd) Sajjad Ghani during his visit to Dasu Hydropower Project, construction work for the project has been continuing simultaneously at 12 different sites.

The project management told Ghani that the critical diversion system will be completed in May 2023, while electricity generation from the project will commence by the end of 2026.

WAPDA in its bulk supply tariff petition shared with National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), said that the expected completion date of the Dasu Stage-I Hydropower Project (HPP) has been pushed till FY 2026-27 due to land acquisition issues, COVID pandemic and terrorism incident, all beyond WAPDA's control.

WAPDA has requested NEPRA to allow the project's completion date to be extended till 2026-27.

The project completion of Dasu Stage-1, situated on the Indus River, was approved in 2014. Pace of work on the project, however, remained slow due to land acquisition issues. The land acquisition issues took a long time to be resolved, resulting in a delay of almost three years.

The Main Civil Works Contract was awarded to M/S China Gezhouba Group Company (CGGC) and work on Dasu HPP Stage-I commenced on June 23, 2017, which was expected to be completed by June 2023. E&M Contract was awarded to M/s Power China-General Electronics JV in Feb 2021 with expected completion in March 2026, reported The Nation.

After the resolution of the land acquisition issues in 2019, work on the project was going smoothly and gaining momentum even amid the COVID outbreak. An unfortunate terrorist attack on a bus of Chinese Contractor staff on July 14, 2021, however, resulted in several causalities and injuries which caused the complete suspension of work on the project for the next four months.

Work was resumed on October 25, 2021, after efforts by WAPDA and GoP. Work was expected to get fully mobilized during the first half of 2022. The delay, however, impacted the construction schedule as the River Diversion which was earlier scheduled for November-December 2021, was slipped to December 2022, causing a one-year delay, reported The Nation.

Recently, it was reported that the project which has the capacity to generate 2,160 MW of hydel electricity, was hit by a cost overrun of up to 100 billion Pakistani rupees. (ANI)