ISLAMABAD, Feb 9: Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaqat Jatoi on Friday informed the National Assembly that the Diamer-Bhasha dam was located in the seismic zone — at the boundary of the Asian tectonic plates.

In a written reply to a question of People’s Party Parliamentarians MNA Abdul Ghani Talpur, the minister said a micro-seismic network was being established by the Water and Power Development Authority to monitor the seismic activity, specifically near the dam site, in addition to four “strong motion acceleronographs” which were already working to record earthquake in the area.

Initially, he said, feasibility consultants formulated a database, containing 863 instrumentally recorded earthquakes of magnitude four or greater in a radius of 200 kilometres of the project area during the period from 1927 to 2001. He said design consultants were establishing seismic parameters for safe design of the project.