'KBD the only cheapest option to generate electricity'

Kalabagh Dam is the only cheapest option to generate electricity as the project will cost one billion dollars a year and to be completed within six years, providing over 3500MW of power, said Fellow Executive Council of Institution of Electrical And Electronic Engineers Pakistan (IEEEP) Captain Syed Khalid Sajjad (Retd) while talking to Business Recorder here on Tuesday.
He further said that the other option was Bhasha Dam but the project would take at least 18 years to be completed. The project of Bhasha Dam is consists of four projects, first dam second training works on mountains up stream of dam third complete renovation of Karakoram Highway with increased classification of bridges and lastly construction of absolutely new piece of 150 KM-KKH, uphill of lake as the previous shall be completely submerged in the lake.
He said that estimated cost of Bhasha Dam would be more than 15 billion dollars. This shall provide about 4000MW to 4500MW of electricity. The third option was Boonji Tunnel, which at the moment was in very early stage of investigation and design, but was expected to provide more than 5000MW of power, after a period of 15 years from present.
There were many other merits/demerits/cost comparison under study at the moment. The best choice is, however, Kalabagh dam, which is technically and economically viable and will provide more than 300MW at the minimum cost of six billion dollars, he said adding that the delay in taking decision and the delay in the implementation of this decision would be detrimental to Pakistan's solidarity.
He also said that economy of any country depends on the natural resources and their exploration for further utilisation. "We must develop our power, energy, industry & agriculture sectors, if we really want to survive and prosper. Energy is the major gift of God. It is all up to us to decide, how to get, achieve and further how to utilise. The other alternate is to get it by converting water to steam through fuel (oil/gas) and steam forced to generate for obtaining, the electric power. In any way thermal/hydel, it is the water which does the job," Sajjad said.
He said in hydel electricity, there was no fuel cost except additional benefit of using water for irrigation during dry seasons but in thermal, main cost of generating power was fuel (furnace oil, diesel/gas). Certainly, diesel/gas were expensive as they had to be drilled out of the earth may be thousands of feet below the ground level and further fuel transported to Power House Sites after getting it from the refineries located near to availability of furnace oil and gas fields.
"If the government just use the purchase cost of the fuel and does not impose any tax on oil/gas, the electricity shall still be expensive than hydel but affordable. But if government imposes tax on diesel/gas, the cost of electricity shall be three to four times and could even jump to seven to eight times higher depending upon the taxation value. It must now be clear that as the government has imposed heavy taxation on diesel and gas, we could not get cheap electricity. If however, tax was to be imposed, it should only be on petrol/aviation. The cost of diesel has increased substantially and at the moment it was not possible to bear the cost and as such some units have to be shut down which result in loadshedding," he said.
He also said that thermal power houses were unable to pay the heavy cost of fuel therefore they have to stop the supply of electricity, thus increasing further the liability of circular debt of the government. Moreover, "the economy of the country has also reached at stake; as the transportation industry, tube-wells and all such industry based on diesel have raised the cost of their produce that is crippling the economy," he said adding that the prices of food have increased substantially and unemployed people have left with no alternative except to beg, borrow or steal and even kill other people.
Sajjad said that borrowing heavily from IMF, World Bank etc without working out solution for its return has led us to a stage from where unfortunately there seems no reversal. The whole country was now in the clutches of world's only super power due to the follies of the leaders and shall be used as an ally of India during a war between India and China. The war is expected after 10 to 15 years from today. The United States has already entered a nuclear deal with India and recently according to a business deal with India shall be investing more than 10 billion dollars. The US shall transfer all its investments from China to India within next 10 years, he concluded.