US to provide $200-M for Pakistan's Diamer-Bhasha dam project

$200 million for preliminary work.

The United States has agreed to provide this for the Diamer-Bhasha dam project, says Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh.

It is likely to cost $10 billion.

The power generation and water conservation project, , is expected to help the country overcome its energy shortages.

Mr Shaikh disagreed with the suggestion that the production of electricity in Pakistan had decreased during the last five years but conceded that the country was not producing enough energy to meet its rapidly growing needs.

He added that the US also was funding repair work on four existing dams in Pakistan which would help boost electricity production by 900 megawatts.

The minister said the US would soon release $600 million to $500 million from the Coalition Support Fund, which was meant to reimburse Pakistan’s counter-insurgency operations but had been withheld for more than a year due to tensions between the two countries.

He dismissed the impression that the Asian Development Bank had backed out of its commitment to finance the Diamer-Bhasha dam project. Not only the ADB but the United States also would finance feasibility study and surveys for the dam to be built in Gilgit-Baltistan, he said.

Pakistan would complete land survey, feasibility and land acquisition processes to expedite the process, the minister said.

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