LAHORE, April 24 The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) has arranged finances for the 969-megawatt Neelum-Jhelum project and various financial institutions have also shown interest in funding Diamer-Basha dam.

Wapda Chairman Shakil Durrani told a delegation of the Pakistan Navy War College here at the Wapda House on Friday that despite global financial crunch, the authority had been able to raise finances for its projects due to high economic internal rate of returns (EIRR).

He said Diamer-Basha dam, with useable water storage capacity of over six million acre feet (MAF) and electricity generation capacity of 4,500MW, was the largest project ever built in the history of Pakistan.

The pre-qualification process of the contractors is underway and will be completed soon, paving way for award of contract and subsequent start of construction work on the project, he added.

He said besides developing new storage capacity, water conservation through effective use of water in the agriculture sector was equally important.

Neelum-Jhelum Hydroelectric Project General Manager Hasnain Afzal told the delegation that 18.8maf of net water was available for developing new storages in Pakistan. The delegation was briefed that 20 million acres of additional land could be brought under plough if water was made available by constructing reservoirs.

Pepco Director-General (Energy Management and Conservation) Tahir Basharat Cheema, dilating upon various measures being taken for bridging the gap between demand and supply of electricity, briefed the delegation that two new power projects would come online every month from now onwards to help end loadshedding by December 2009 as committed by the government.

He said around 11,000MW electricity would be added to the National Grid by the end of 2012.

Pepco Managing Director Fazal Ahmad Khan (also Wapda member), Member (Water) Syed Raghib Abbas Shah and senior officers of Wapda and Pepco were also present.