LAHORE: The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) signed on Friday a Rs776.3 million contract with a Turkish firm-led joint venture for consultancy services for Kurram Tangi Dam project’s stage-II.

The joint venture is comprised of four firms — one from Turkiye and three from Pakistan — with Turkish firm Dolsar as the leading company.

The agreement covered consultancy services for detailed engineering design, preparation of updated PC-I, PC-II for land acquisition and resettlement plan and tender documents of the project. The duration of the contract is 22 months whereas the Asian Development Bank was providing financial assistance for the consultancy.

The contract signing ceremony was held at Wapda House where Chief Engineer and Project Director of Kurram Tangi Dam Muhammad Shafiq Bhettani and International Projects Coordinator of Dolsar Cem Aker signed the contract on behalf of their organisations.

The Stage II of Kurram Tangi Dam is proposed to be constructed on Kurram River in North Waziristan district, about 14km upstream of Kurram Garhi Headworks and 32km north of Bannu City.

The stage-II will have a gross water storage capacity of 1.2 million acre-feet (MAF) and an installed power generation capacity of 65 megawatts. The project will irrigate 38,000 acres of new land in addition to supplementing 278,000 acres of existing land. It merits mentioning that Wapda has already been implementing stage-I of Kurram Tangi Dam Project. Stage-I will irrigate 16,380 acres and generate about 18.4MW.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2023