ISLAMABAD-Process of land acquisition for Dasu has substantially been completed and its stage-I of 2,160 MW will start electricity generation in 2026. WAPDA Chairman Lt Gen (retd) Engr Sajjad Ghani has said that the pace of construction work will be further accelerated on Dasu Hydropower Project, as long-delayed process of land acquisition has substantially been completed. The chairman expressed these views during his visit to Dasu Hydropower Project on Tuesday. Speaking on the occasion, the chairman said that the issue of acquiring the land was the major obstacle in the way to speedy implementation of the project.
The chairman had a detailed visit of the starter dam and the underground power house of the project. During a briefing by the GM/PD and the Project Managers of the Consultants and the Contractors, the chairman was briefed that the river diversion system functioning satisfactorily during the recent high-flow season. It was further informed that a 1.3-km-long left bank flushing tunnel has also been temporarily opened last week for the traffic to bypass main dam site and facilitate excavation of the dam abutment at the left bank as well. Excavation of the intake, power house, tail race tunnel, surge chamber and transformers cavern is also in progress.
The project is being constructed across the River Indus, upstream of Dasu Town in Upper Kohistan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The 4,320-MW-Dasu Hydropower Project is planned to be completed in two stages. In June this year, WAPDA has announced that stage-I of the concrete Starter Dam has been completed upstream of Main Dasu Dam site. As per the design, the Starter Dam for Dasu Hydropower Project is to be completed in two stages: Stage-I upto elevation of 785 metres, while Stage-II upto elevation of 798 metres above mean sea level. According to WAPDA, the stage-I of the concrete Starter Dam was completed before the high flow season. As the high flow season has started, River Indus is flowing through the two Diversion Tunnels completed earlier this year, while some of the river water is overtopping the concrete Starter Dam as designed.
After the high flow season in October this year, the construction of the Starter Dam’s stage-II will be carried out. The stage-II is scheduled for completion during the coming low flow season.
At present, WAPDA is constructing its stage-I with installed generation capacity of 2,160 MW and annual energy generation of 12 billion units. Stage-I of the project is likely to start electricity generation in 2026. The 2,160-MW stage-II, when implemented, will also provide 9 billion units to the National Grid. On completion of the both stages, Dasu will become the project with highest annual energy generation in Pakistan i.e. 21 billion units per annum on the average. The project will commence by end 2026.
Earlier, the Chairman also visited Diamer Basha Dam Project to review construction activities on the key sites.
The Chairman was briefed that the construction activities are being carried out simultaneously on 10 sites of the main works, which include permanent bridge, diversion tunnel, left and right abutments and low level outlets. The Chairman directed the project team to complete river diversion phase-1 by November this year as per the schedule.
Diamer Basha Dam Project is scheduled for completion in 2027-28. The Dam will have a gross water storage of 8.1 MAF to irrigate 1.23 million acres of additional land. Installed power generation capacity of the project stands at 4,500 MW.