*LAHORE:* Due to illegal constructions and encroachments at the proposeddam site and sluggishness in the land acquiring process by the provincialgovernment of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Water and Power DevelopmentAuthority (WAPDA), the ground-breaking of Dasu Hydropower Project is stillin limbo, Daily Times has learnt reliably.
According to sources, the land around the proposed site which had to beacquired by WAPDA through the provincial government for the construction ofthe dam has not yet been acquired as the November 2018 deadline by theWorld Bank approaches fast. Sources said that despite having received areasonable fraction of funds from the loans approved for the purpose, thegovernment has failed to kick-start the construction of one of the mostimportant and much-needed power project.
The Dasu Hydropower Project is to be constructed about seven kilometresnorth of Dasu town in district Kohistan of KP province. The 242-metre-highdam with gross storage capacity of 1,410 million cubic meters and livestorage capacity of 820 million cubic meters is supposed to generate 4,320MW of electricity. The water storage facility, once built, will be able toirrigate 15.88 million hectares of land.
The project is planned to be completed in two stages, with each having ageneration capacity of 2160 MW. The Dasu Hydropower Project-I is to becompleted in five years and will contribute more than 12 billion units perannum to the national grid. After completion of stage-II, another ninebillion units would be added to the system every year.
Sources revealed that for the development and construction of DasuHydropower Project-I, the World Bank had approved a financing package fromthe International Development Association (IDA) on June 10, 2014. Under anagreement between the Government of Pakistan, WAPDA and the World Bank, acredit of US$ 588.4 million was signed on August 25, 2014 along with an IDAPartial Credit Guarantee (PCG) of US$ 460 million. The loan agreement waseffective from November 20, 2014. Another agreement for financing of up toRs 144 billion was signed with Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and a consortium ofseven local commercial banks in March, 2017. The first tranche of Rs 25billion was received in May 2017. Another agreement of US$ 350 million wassigned with Credit Suisse Bank in June 2017 and the first tranche of US$188 million was received on June 30, 2017.
Sources informed Daily Times that the project area is totally mountainousand the one of the least developed regions in Pakistan. The population inthe area belongs to many tribes who migrate up and down the hills duringdifferent seasons for their livelihoods. The land in the area is communallyowned and land rights are traditionally recognized by tribal and customarylaws.
Sources said that due to non-availability of land records, WAPDA hadestablished a separate ‘Land Acquisition & Assessment Unit’ under thecontrol of deputy collector (DC) Kohistan who was responsible forpreparation of the revenue record. The Executive Committee of NationalEconomic Council (ECNEC) had approved the rates of the lands to be acquiredfor the dam but the locals are demanding higher returns and creatinghurdles by doing fresh constructions and encroaching upon the areas closeto the project site, with the DC office still unable to resolve the matterwith the locals.
Sources also expressed distress over disbanding the Grievances RedressalPlan (GRP) introduced by WAPDA in order to deal with the grievances anddisputes regarding lack of land records, errors in establishing inventoryof the losses, exclusion of legitimate affected households due to migrationto higher elevations, gaps in the legal and policy framework regardingsocially and legally identified owners of land, lack of adequate safety inthe construction areas, pollution, noise, traffic hazards and other similarissues.
As per information acquired from WAPDA, out of the 2,029 acre priority arealand required for the preparatory and main civil works, about 634 acres ofland had already been acquired while the remaining land was to be acquiredby February 2018. A sum of Rs 1.57 billion has been distributed among theproject affectees so far.
Javed Akhtar, general manager and project director of Dasu HydropowerProject, told Daily Times that under the land acquisition laws, provincialgovernment, not WAPDA, was responsible for acquisition of the land. “Thereis no government land available in the area. It is a mountainous area andpeople own all the land. Despite the enforcement of Section 4, under whichgovernment through the district collector acquires land for the publicpurpose, people are carrying out constructions in the area which is a majorhindrance to the launch of development work of the dam. Revenue record ofthe area is not available with the provincial government, which is also abig issue. The government is offering 25% more to the affectees ascompensation for acquiring the land than what was given for Diamer BhashaDam but people are still not satisfied,” he said.
“WAPDA had no land for the purpose until 2017, but now we have acquiredsome land and the remaining will be acquired soon with the help of theprovincial government,” he said. To a question about delays in launch ofthe project and the approaching loan deadlines, he said, “We have no issuewith the deadline of the loan from the World Bank, as we keep informingthem about the situation on regular basis. The November 2018 deadline canbe extended.”