Islamabad, 26 October 2024: The Ministry of Water Resources is mulling to accelerate the cost of Mohmand hydro power project due to currency depreciation after the commissioning of the project.
The hydro project is being built on the Swat River at about 5 kilometer upstream of Munda Head Works in District Mohmand.
The government has estimated the project will add 800 megawatt in national grid which be not only cheaper but also environment friendly.
Sources in the Ministry of Water Resources, the government had estimated the total cost of the hydro project around Rs224 billion through PC-1 of the project with the projection of currency value Rs115/USD.
During the last six years, the local currency was depreciated against the US Dollar from Rs115 to Rs278, which, has pushed up the cost of the project.
The government is considering to revision of the cost which could be surged to around Rs550 billion on the basis of huge depreciation of local currency value.
The labor and other material cost were also main contributing factors which increased the total cost of the project which could grow by almost two times during the last six years.
The relevant officials are working on the revision of cost of the project and will be presented before the ECNEC after initial approval from Central Development Working Party of the Planning Commission.
The civil works of the project has been completed arund35 percent and Rs135 billion has been utilized.
As of today, a temporary tunnel of the project has been completed and water flow of the river has been diverting to initiate civil work on the site.
The construction work is underway on second tunnel which will be used permanently for diversion of water flow from dam.
The process of the land acquisition for the hydro project could not completed after five years .
On 2019, the former Prime Minister Imran Khan led PTI government had awarded the contract to Chinese company CGGC and Pakistani company DESCON JV.
The DESCON is owned by his federal Minister Dawood Razzaq.
The sources said that the WAPDA officials have been completed 99 percent land acquisition and Rs4 billion has been disbursed to the land owners.
The one percent remaining land has to acquire after settlement the dispute between the locals.
According to an estimate, the government has been paying to the local owners at the average cost of around 0.455 million per acre for this barren land in remote area where there is no population even.
It is also important that below to 40 families were displaced due to the project.
