GILGIT: The Indus River will be diverted completely at the site of the Diamer-Bhasha Dam project by next week.

Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) Chairmanretired Lt Gen Sajjad Ghani visited the project site on Sunday to review the river diversion. The river was partially diverted last week.

The diversion system consists of about one-km-long tunnel, a 0.857km-long canal and two coffer (starter) dams – one at the upstream and the other at downstream of the main dam site.

Wapda succeeded in diverting River Indus partially last week through the diversion system. Nowadays, the mighty river is flowing mainly through the diversion tunnel and canal and partly through its natural course.

The Wapda chairman also reviewed progress on the construction sites of the dam. He was briefed about the test-run of the diversion system.

The diversion tunnel and canal are functioning satisfactorily. At present, construction work is continuing smoothly on 13 sites. Wapda is all set to achieve the landmark of Indus River diversion by plugging the upstream coffer dam.

The river will then be flowing completely through the diversion system bypassing the main dam site and rejoining its natural course after about 800 metres.

Diamer Basha Dam Project is being constructed on River Indus, 40-Km downstream of Chilas town.

The multipurpose project is scheduled for completion in 2028. It has a gross water storage capacity of 8.1 million acre feet (MAF) to irrigate 1.23 million acres of land. Power generation capacity of the project stands at 4,500 MW with annual energy generation of 18 billion units.

Diamer-Bhasha Dam is among eight under-construction Wapda projects which are scheduled for completion from 2024 to 2029. These projects will add about 10,000 MW of low-cost and environment-friendly hydel electricity and store 9.7 million acre feet of water.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2023