In the wake of Supreme Court’s decision and the Government’s resolve for early commencement and timely completion of Diamer Basha and Mohmand Dams, the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), while gearing up its efforts for implementation of the projects, received pre-qualification bids at WAPDA House from as many as five joint ventures of foreign and local firms through international in the 2nd week of September as competitive bidding for construction of main dam and appurtenant structures of Diamer Basha Dam Project.
The pre-qualification bids will be evaluated in accordance with the bid documents and the relevant procurement rules of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) and the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC).
Diamer Basha Dam is a multipurpose project aims at water storage, flood mitigation and power generation. The project will be constructed across River Indus about 40-kilometer downstream of Chillas town. The 272-meter high Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) Dam will have a gross water storage capacity of 8.1 million acre feet (MAF). The project will generate 4500 megawatt of electricity with annual energy generation of more than 18 billion units of low-cost and environment friendly electricity. With construction of Diamer Basha Dam Project, the life of Tarbela Dam will enhance to another 35 years.It will also have a positive impact on the annual energy generation of the projects in the downstream areas. It is estimated that the annual energy generation of the existing hydel power stations including Tarbela, Ghazi Barotha, Jinnah and Chashma will increase by about 2.5 billion per annum, while annual energy generation of the future hydropower projects including Dasu, Pattan and Thakot will also surge by another 7.5 billion units.
