ISLAMABAD, Oct 11: The government has given a go ahead signal to a US company for the development and uplift of “Munda” multipurpose dam at a cost of $1 billion.

Sources in the water and power ministry said on Saturday that Private Power Infrastructure Board (PPIB) had accepted an offer made by M/s AMZO Corporation of Maryland, USA, for development of Munda multipurpose dam project located on River Swat in the NWFP.

The site of the dam is around 5 kilometres above the existing Munda headwork and 37km from Peshawar.

“This would be the first mega hydropower project in the private sector in Pakistan with the investment of over one billion dollar,” the sources said.

The proposed project involves construction of a 702 feet concrete face rockfill (CFRF) dam, which is first of its kind in the country with a power generation potential of 740 MW.

The dam would create a reservoir of 1.3 million acre feet (MAF) and apart from augmenting the existing irrigation system would bring additional cultivable land under irrigation on both sides of the river.

The AZMO Corporation had expressed interests for the setting up of the dam through a written offer during April this year.

The ministry after receiving the proposal had submitted it to the committee to oversee implementation of power generation projects, 2002 (the secretary’s committee) for scrutiny.

The committee, during September allowed the interested party to submit detailed proposal for the expression of interest for investment in energy sector — for Munda dam multipurpose project, as per provisions of the policy.

The committee also advised AZMO to get itself registered with the PPIB and adopt the formal procedures to let further process the case.—APP