LAHORE: Chairman WAPDA Lt Gen Muzammil Hussain (r) said on Tuesday that Wapda has been constructing as many as eight mega projects including Diamer Basha Dam, Mohmand Dam, and Dasu to improve the water situation in the country and increase the share of low-cost and environment-friendly hydropower in the national grid.

He was talking to Managing Director of Fauji Foundation Waqar Ahmed Malik who called on him to discuss in detail matters relating to cooperation in the implementation of Wapda projects.

These projects, Chairman Wapda added, are scheduled to be completed one by one from 2022 to 2028-29, and would cumulatively add 11 million acre-feet to gross water storage capacity, mitigate floods, irrigate 1.6 million acres of land and generate 9000 megawatts of hydel electricity.

He further said that an innovative financial plan has been devised by Wapda to arrange funds for construction of Diamer Basha and Mohmand dams by exploiting its own financial strength with less dependence on the national exchequer.

Wapda is the first public sector entity that has been given a stable outlook equivalent to Pakistan by the top three international credit rating agencies of the world i.e. Moody's, Fitch and Standard and Poor (S&P). Therefore, these projects provide excellent investment and business opportunities for the international and local firms including Fauji Foundation, he said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021