ISLAMABAD: Wapda Chairman Zafar Mahmood on Saturday briefed Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on the draft hydel power policy being prepared to attract investment in hydel power generation.

At a meeting, also attended by Chairman, Board of Investment, Dr Miftah Ismail and secretaries of finance and economic affairs division, Zafar informed the finance minister that the policy will provide for upfront tariff to international investors.

The policy will also address environmental aspects in addition to technical and financial aspects. He further informed that the draft policy is essential for attracting private sector investment in hydel power generation.

Ishaq Dar asked the Wapda chairman to expedite formulation of a comprehensive hydel power policy to attract private sector investment in the huge potential power sector.

He directed the officials of the ministry of water and power and Wapda to plan for the international investors’ meeting to be held in Washington to attract donor agencies and US investors for construction of mega dams in Pakistan with special emphasis on opportunities available in Diamer Bhasha dam project.

The finance minister observed that Indus River Cascade has an over 90,000MW power generation capacity and had there been focus on hydel power generation, the country would not have shortage of energy or water.

He stated that the government will go ahead with both Dasu and Diamer projects at the same time and eventually phase out costly thermal power generation which has resulted in large import bill.

The Wapda chairman informed the meeting that during the last 24 hours, Mangla Dam has absorbed two million acre feet of water from its catchment areas.

The Mangla dam raising project has brought immense benefits not only for conservation of water but also to control flooding, he said.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2014