ISLAMABAD, Jan 4: The government has arranged substantial amount of rupee component to finance three big dams, including Kalabagh and Bhasha, according to a senior official.

“Raising local funding is not a problem to undertake construction of multiple large dams against the foreign component of finance which can also be arranged at a later stage,” Economic Adviser to the Finance Ministry Dr Ashfaque Hasan Khan told Dawn on Wednesday.

He said new financial resources to be provided for dams would not disturb the macro-economic balance, adding “everything is being finalized in line with the macro-economic framework of the country”.

About 60 per cent of the under-execution Public Sector Development Programme aims to improve physical infrastructure, especially projects relating to water and power, with a view to achieving 6-8 per cent GDP growth in next three years, he said.

“If we want to maintain our growth momentum, we will have to spend more on infrastructure development, particularly on the construction of large dams,” maintained Dr Khan.

In reply to a question, he said the government would not have to spend bulk of the funds on the three dams immediately. “Naturally, one large dam will be constructed at a time for which we are not short of funds.”

He said construction of large dams could not be shouldered by the government alone, but added that “arranging foreign funding will not be a problem”.

He said the World Bank had been funding big infrastructure development projects, including dams, in various parts of the world and Pakistan could also get such funding.

The economic adviser said that the construction of dams would start enormous economic activity, especially for the construction and steel industry, and added that it would also help create a huge number of jobs.

Meanwhile, a former Wapda chairman, Shamsul Mulk, said the government would have to hire foreign consultants and engineers to build big dams as the country did not produce many engineers after building the Mangla and Tarbela dams in the 1970s.

“To construct dams of the magnitude of Kalabagh and Bhasha, you will need a consortium of good foreign firms as well as the international panel of experts,” he said.