GILGIT, July 1: Land acquisition for the $6.5 billion Diamer-Bhasha dam project has begun. The mega power project will have an installed capacity of 4,500 megawatts.
Briefing journalists here on Saturday, project director Syed Ghaffar highlighted the dam’s locarion and said that the project was located on River Indus about 165 kilometres downstream of Gilgit and 40 kilometres downstream of Chilas.
He said that earth testing and digging of new tunnels to ascertain the rock quality has been initiated to finalise the dam’s design by 2008.
The dam, which would now stand 270-meter high after its height was reduced by 10 metres, would have a reservoir capacity of 7.4 million acre feet with live storage of more than 6.4 MAF.
The annual discharge of River Indus at the site is 50 MAF, and the dam will have a storage capacity to store 15 per cent of the total annual river inflow. The reservoir will cover an area of 110 km and extend 100 km upstream of the dam site up to Raikot Bridge on the Karakorum Highway (KKH).
Syed Ghaffar said that Wapda would build nine new towns and settlements to rehabilitate 22,000 people belonging to 30 villages affected by the project, comprising 2,200 housing units.
The project director said that about 1,500 acres of farmland would be submerged and reiterated that each, adding that all affected people would be compensated.
