(January 18, 2017)
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President AKIA, Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former Provincial Minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said business community supports decision of the government to include Diamer-Bhasha Dam in the CPEC.
The decision which is backed by all the provinces will expedite the construction of the project which will improve energy and water storage situation while increasing the life of Tarbela and Mangla dams, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that Diamer-Bhasha Dam which will cost around 12 billion dollars is 315 kilometre away from Tarbela which will have the capacity to store 8.1 million acre feet of water while producing 4500 megawatt of electricity impacting millions of people.
Construction of Diamer-Bhasha Dam will have adverse impacts on the environment, but efforts are underway to mitigate them as much as possible that include preserving the local culture by setting up model villages around the reservoir periphery, he pointed.
He further said that government is very serious about settling energy crisis and eleven thousand megawatt of electricity will be added in the national grid by 2018.
Five thousand megawatt of electricity will be added in the national grid through 12 CPEC projects that include wind, coal and solar power projects while the rest will come through non-CPEC projects.
The business leader stated that government has also included many projects proposed by provinces in the CPEC which will help allay reservations while the agencies tasked to foil conspiracies against the game changing projects have also stepped up their efforts.
He said that construction work of Gwadar Expressway will be initiated soon while Gwadar Smart City project is scheduled to be completed in the current year.
