Pakistan has initially offered around 8 hydel power projects on upper Indus to the Chinese firm Three Gorges Corporation which established the world's largest dam in China. These projects were identified in preliminary talks held with a delegation of Chinese energy company, Three Gorges Corporation (TGC), led by Qin guo Bin, Chief Executive, which called on Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif on Tuesday. TGC owns and operates the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric power plant with a capacity of 22,500 megawatts.
During the meeting, projects like Diamer-Bhasha, Bunji, Thakot, Munda and other hydropower projects were identified with the combined capacity of 35,000MW hydel generation. Official familiar with the development said that senior officials of Ministry of Water and Power were on a visit to China to hold energy talks and a detailed meeting would be held on August 28.
The Chinese government-owned TGC expressed an interest in financing projects in Pakistan in conjunction with the International Finance Corporation, a World Bank subsidiary. The offer is in addition to the $46 billion financing for power and transportation infrastructure being provided by the Chinese government and Chinese banks to Pakistan for the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). According to studies conducted by the Water and Power Development Authority, Pakistan has an identified potential of producing up to 60,000 MW of hydroelectric power, of which 40,000 MW is located in a region called the Indus Cascade, which begins in Skardu in Gilgit-Baltistan and runs through to Tarbela, the site of Pakistan's biggest dam, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Of this, only 6919 MW has been tapped so far.
The biggest project the government has already identified and begun preliminary work on is the Diamer Bhasha dam, which would require $15 billion to construct and would have a nameplate capacity of 4,500 MW. The Chinese company has also shown an interest in investing in the upper Indus hydropower projects. The Minister extended full support for the Indus Energy cascade like Diamer-Bhasha, Bunji, Thakot and other hydropower projects with a capacity of 35,000MW.
"We will encourage the Chinese to invest in development of hydel resource of Indus cascade," said an official who attended the meeting. The delegation requested that basic data may be provided for the review work on 7 to 8 hydropower projects on the upper Indus. The Minister said that Chairman Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) would give full data and the Ministry of Water and Power along with finance division would facilitate and cooperate with them fully. The minister also highlighted the importance of the hydropower projects with a reference to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.