ISLAMABAD: The price of acquisition of land for the for Dasu HydropowerProject (DHP) has almost doubled from Rs19 billion to Rs37 billion as theaffectees have refused to accept the initially approved amount.
A Senate Panel on Thursday expressed concern over the slow pace of progressto acquire land for Rs510 billion Dasu Hydropower Project and sought an anexplanation from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.
The Senate Standing Committee on Water Resources led by Senator ShamimAfridi was informed that only 7.5 percent, of total 9,875 acres of landrequired for the project, had so far been acquired.
The documents shared with the committee show that 7,888 acres of land wererequired for reservoir area excluding main and preparatory work, of whichno land was acquired.
This implies that out of total required land of 9,875 acres only 740 acresof land was acquired.
The committee was informed by Water and Power Development Authority Member(Wapda) member that the total capacity of Dasu project was 4,320MW and itwill be completed in two phases.
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The project will have 12 units of 360MW each. In the first phase, 2,160MWelectricity will be generated by 2023. The work on the first phase of theproject was launched in June 2017 whereas the development under the secondphase will begin in 2023.
The committee was briefed that project affectees did not accept the landrates approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council(ECNEC) in 2015 and had demanded an increase in land rate.
As per the revised plan, cost of acquisition of land increased from Rs19bnto Rs37bn. The increase in the cost of land (Rs18bn) will be borne by WAPDAfrom its equity and local commercial financing. The new prices had beenapproved by both ECNEC and Federal Cabinet, he informed. The jump in landprices jacked up the total cost of Dasu project from Rs486bn to Rs510bn.
