LAHORE: The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) on Tuesday signed a contract of Rs9.98 billion with a joint venture (JV) for consultancy services regarding construction design, supervision and contract management of the Mohmand dam hydropower project.

The JV namely Mohmand Dam Consul­tants Group (MDCG) is led by Nespak and comprises six partners and seven sub-consultants (four foreign and nine local firms).

According to a press release issued here by a spokesperson for Wapda, the agreement was signed in Islamabad by the Wapda general manager/project director of Mohmand dam, Mohammad Javed Afridi, and MDCG representative Dr Tahir Mehmood Hayat.

Federal Minister for Water Resources Mohammad Faisal Vawda, Secretary of Water Resources Mohammad Ashraf, Wapda Chairman retired Lt Gen Muzammil Hussain, Joint Secretary of Water Resources Syed Mohammad Mehr Ali Shah, Wapda members, senior officers and representatives of the consulting firms were present on the occasion.

The spokesperson said the Pakistani engineering firm had been assigned the lead role in the contract for consultancy services in such a mega water sector project for the first time in the country’s history for capacity building of local engineering firms and bringing them on a par with known international consultants.

The Mohmand dam project is being constructed on Swat river in Mohmand tribal district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is a multi-purpose project with gross water storage capacity of 1.2 million acre feet and power generation capacity of 800 megawatt.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2019