ISLAMABAD     -   Chairman of Water and Power Development Authority (WAP­DA) Lt Gen (r) Sajjad Ghani has said that his foremost priority is to complete under-construction WAPDA projects as per their schedules, in addi­tion to initiating new projects to cope with increasing re­quirements of water and elec­tricity in the country.

This was the crux of the chairman’s interaction during a week-long briefing sessions about under construction WAP­DA projects including Mohm­and Dam, Diamer Basha Dam and Dasu Hydropower Project. WAPDA Members Finance, Wa­ter and Power, Diamer Basha Dam chief executive officer, general managers and repre­sentatives of the consultants and contractors of the projects attended these briefings.

Underlining the significance of ongoing projects, the chair­man said that completion of as many as 10 WAPDA projects is linked with economic stability and social uplift of Pakistan, as these projects would add 11.7 million acre feet (MAF) of gross water storage and 11300 megawatt (MW) of low-cost, clean and green hydel electric­ity to the national grid. These projects are scheduled to be completed from 2022 to 2029 in a phased manner, hence, their on-time completion is a huge challenge; but there lies an opportunity in these chal­lenges as well. We can avail the opportunity to lift WAPDA’s stature at national as well as international level, he added.

Urging upon the projects’ management, the chairman said that the task of scheduled completion of WAPDA projects can be achieved with a coher­ent team work, for which, every employee will have to play his or her due role with utmost dedication. During the week-long briefings sessions, the chairman had separate briefings on the mega projects including Mohmand Dam, Di­amer Basha Dam and Dasu Hy­dropower Project. The chair­man was briefed of the targets versus achievements on the projects. He emphasized upon the projects’ management to adopt a forthcoming approach for removing the bottlenecks in the way to smooth imple­mentation of the projects. The matters relating to land acquisition, confidence build­ing measures in the projects’ areas, logistics and security were also discussed in details during the briefings.