ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank has agreed to finance a $65 million private sector power project being set up on Poonch river, upstream Mangla Dam.

According to official sources, the project envisages construction and operation of a 102MW run-of-the river hydroelectric generation facility for which the ADB is expected to provide $65m.

The project will be developed in accordance with the Power Policy 2002 under which the ADB has financed several projects and will be undertaken on a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis in 30 years since the beginning of the project’s commercial operation.

It will ensure low-cost generation and provide additional electricity supply to the national grid.

According to the project document, the tariff for electricity supplied by the project will be lower than that for plants that use imported fuel and other renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.

It will also avoid greenhouse gas emissions of almost 240,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year.

Published in Dawn, September 28th , 2014