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PESHAWAR: The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) on Thursday awarded a Rs611.5 million contract to a private party for preparing a detailed engineering design of a proposed multipurpose dam on the River Swat.
Wapda and a joint venture represented by Pakistani, Australian and Japanese firms formally made an agreement at Governor’s House, according to a news release.
Contractors have been given two years to prepare design and tender documents of Munda Dam Project after which another seven years will take to construct the dam and other components of the project.
A proposal to build a dam on the River Swat, five kilometres upstream of Munda headwork in Mohmand Agency, has been under consideration for several years with Wapda and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bickering over its utility.
A provincial irrigation department official told Dawn that Wapda had planned the project for power generation only.
“The province, being a major stakeholder, intervened and asked the authority to address our reservations as we think that in addition to power generation, the dam can also be utilised for flood control and irrigation in Nowshera, Swabi and Peshawar,” said the official.
The multipurpose project’s significance was reinvigorated after devastating floods in 2010 that wreaked havoc on the public life and provincial economy, according to the official.
The release said the project on completion would mitigate floods, develop irrigated agriculture and generate hydropower with installed capacity of 740 megawatts, adding around 2,407 million units annually to the national grid.
The signing ceremony was informed that Munda Dam was a priority project in the wake of the 2010 floods.
The release said after completion of the detailed engineering design in two years, work will begin for which the cost had been calculated at $1,401 million.
It said with a total storage capacity of 1.29 million acre feet of water, the project would help control 300 million cubic meters floods of the River Swat, restricting accumulation of its peak flows with that of the River Kabul and that the project was expected to result into annual benefits of around Rs20.2 billion.
According to the release, a French company, AFD, has shown interest in providing financial assistance for designing and carrying out the project.
Addressing the ceremony, the governor described the project as important headway towards Fata development, adding that it would open more avenues of progress and prosperity in Mohmand Agency in particular.
He said it was the second mega project initiated in Fata in three months period the first being the Kurram Tangi Dam. “This is a clear manifestation that peace has been restored in Fata where more such projects would be taken in hand shortly,” he said.
He thanked international community and friendly countries and organisations for generous assistance for Fata development. He expressed the hope that foreign assistance would continue to come in.
The ceremony was also addressed by Wapda chairman Shakil Durrani and representatives of the respective international firms. Speaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Karamtullah Khan Chagarmati, Fata parliamentarians, tribal elders, political leaders and senior officials also attended the function.
