Prime Minister Imran Khan visited the site for the construction of Diamer Bhasha dam along with Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and Federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda, where they were briefed about the mega project.
While addressing a gathering at Chilas the PM vowed to construct the biggest dam in the country and reduce reliance on furnace oil and coal. He said that the decisions made in the 90s to generate electricity using imported furnace oil affected our current account deficit. When there is pressure on foreign exchange, economic conditions start deteriorating.
“This will be our third big dam. China has made around 5,000 big dams, but has a total of about 80,000 dams. From this you can gauge the massive mistakes we have made in the past” he said
Earlier China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Chairman Lieutenant General (retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa said on social media that the dam’s 6.4MAF (million-acre feet) of water would irrigate at least 1.2 million acres of the agricultural area in the country and generate 4,500 MW of affordable, environmentally-friendly electricity and along with boosting the cement and steel industry sectors. The project would also create around 16,000 jobs in the country.
