ISLAMABAD: Faced with start-up problems of the $4.2 billion Dasu hydropower project the centre has asked the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to fast-track the process for acquisition of around 10,000 acres of land needed for the 4,320MW project to avoid penalties and cost escalations.

The delay in land acquisition, a federal government official told Dawn, was also depriving the people of Kohistan – a remote district of KP – of socio-economic benefits expected from the project.

In a letter to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Mohammad Asif complained that “Wapda has not yet received any land award from the district administration” and called for resolving the issue on a priority basis.

He said land acquisition was the most critical aspect of the project which was a top priority of the federal government.

Also read: Landowners refuse to allow work on Dasu hydropower project

“If possession of land is not made before mobilisation of contractors, it will not only affect the completion of project within schedule but also become the cause of huge claims from contractors,” the federal minister told the chief minister. Any delay in transfer of land to Wapda will delay the completion of preparatory works which will eventually affect the implementation of main works.

The project, Khawaja Asif said, would usher in an era of economic development and prosperity for the people of the region and the province.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had performed ground-breaking of Dasu Hydropower Project, strongly advocated by the World Bank, on June 25 last year. With initial investment commitment of about $590 million for its stage-1, the World Bank has long been supporting the project as an alternative to the multi-purpose $14 billion Diamer Bhasha dam.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2015

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