The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) chairman Thursday said that despite the coronavirus crisis, anti-dam lobbies and the IPPs-led foreign vested groups in Pakistan, they were now all gearing up for a 'crack' at Diamer-Bhasha Dam, which would commence in a few weeks.

Talking to mediapersons, after holding a meeting with the Attorney General for Pakistan Khalid Jawed in his office in the Supreme Court premises, he said that despite coronavirus pandemic, 21 power plants were functioning round-the-clock to provide uninterrupted power supply to people.

In view of the coronavirus employees are working in shifts.

Wapda Chairman Lt Gen Muzzammil Hussein (retired), said; "After Mohmand Dam and Dasu projects, Pakistan was now all gearing up for a crack at Diamer Bhasha Dam, which will commence in a few weeks despite corona crisis, anti-dam lobbies and IPPs-lead foreign vested groups, which have unleashed propaganda against the technical design of the dam."

He stated that Diamer-Bhasha Dam with capacity of 4,500MW power generation and gross water capacity of 8.1 MAF would be a game changer for the future of Pakistan. "This will practically put an end to exploitation by the IPPs in Pakistan," he added.

He stated issues such as seismic effect, technical design, environmental impacts and resettlement issues were being quoted to coerce Pakistan to abandon or delay the project, adding the nation should be mindful of such propaganda and the forces, which had kept Pakistan hostage for decades.

Technical Design is based on MONENCO studies by a Canadian company and reviewed by the world experts from 1984-1986 by Alfonso Posada, Prof Fiedrich Karl Ewert, Prof Francesso Ilceto, Earnest L Pemberton, Syed S Kirmani, Nelson De Pinto, Walkeer Wittke.

The review 2002-2004 was done by J Barry Cooke, Brian Forbes, Nelson De Pinto, and Amjad Agha.

Engineering design in 2008 by Lahmyre International, German consultants, was reviewed by Fabio Villegas, Walter Wittke, Brian Forbes, and Prof Dr Abdul Shakoor.

Now the Diamer Basha Dam project is being supervised by an implementation committee formed by Supreme Court of Pakistan and has living legend like Shamsul Mulk on the committee.

Besides some experts of international repute, Pakistani engineers will also supervise the project as experts, who are Sardar Tariq, Khalid Mohtadullah, and Lt Gen Shahid Niaz (retired).

Muzammil said successful commissioning of a few hydro projects in the last two years had added 2,487MW of cheap and clean energy in Pakistan's grid and reduced reliance on expensive IPPs.