Chairman of Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) Irfan Iqbal Sheikh has said that the country has achieved a total consensus among the provinces on way forward of the CPEC where the Bhasha Dam would also be part of the CPEC. Sheikh appreciated the government for convincing the Chinese authorities to include Diamer-Bhasha Dam in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) list.
The government has committed to add 11,000 MW of electricity to the national grid by 2018, 5,000 MW under the CPEC and 6,000 MW under non-CPEC projects, he said. It's good news that the recently concluded 6th meeting of the Joint Co-operation Committee (JCC) in Beijing was attended by chief ministers of all provinces including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan. He said this is the biggest energy investment in the history of Pakistan.
He also asked the government to start work on Kalabagh Dam without further delay. It is the most thoroughly studied project by world's top experts, reviewed by noted international panels of professionals and thoroughly appraised by the World Bank. The project is located in the middle of load centre, easy to approach and no long distance transmission lines are required for it, he added.
It is ready for construction since mid eighties and international financing from World Bank or Asian Bank can still be easily arranged, he said. Some political interference has come in the way from two provinces of KP and Sindh which is not based on facts, playing hell with the country and destroying it without entering in war with our enemies, he added. Quoting the World Bank report, he said that world has built 45,000 large dams so far while Pakistan has built only two, he maintained.