The Dasu Dam is a large (largest run of the river dam in world) hydroelectric

gravity dam A gravity dam is a dam constructed from concrete or stone masonry and designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation. Gravity dams are designed so that each section of the dam is ...

currently under construction on the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayas, Himalayan river of South Asia, South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northw ...

near

Dasu Dasu or Dassu ( Abasin Kohistani and :) is the district headquarters of the Upper Kohistan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It had fifteen union councils before the Kandia Valley was separated. Since it is being named as tehsil, the Dasu ...

in Kohistan District,

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a province of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the fourth largest province of Paki ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. It is developed by Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), as a key component of the company's Water Vision 2025. The project was started in 2019 but faced a delay due to funds and land acquisition disputes. Work resumed in 2020 after land acquisition and arrangements of funding facility, the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

agreed to contribute $700 million of the $4.2 billion as the pakistan government decided to proceed ahead with the construction of the project, as part of the WAPDAs vision 2025. The tall dam will support a 4,320 MW

hydropower station Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

, to be built in two 2,160 MW stages. The plant is expected to start generating power in 2029, and stage-I is planned to complete by 2029. Water from the reservoir will be diverted to the power station located about downstream.

Timeline

Dasu dam proposal was approved in 2001, as part of Government of Pakistan's Vision 2025 program. Feasibility study was completed in 2009. The first stage was approved by the executive committee of the National Economic Council on 29 March 2014. It will cost an estimated $4.278 billion. Former Prime Minister

Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who served as the 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms, first serving from 1990 to 1993, then ...

attended the dam's groundbreaking ceremony on 25 June 2014. Contracts for preparatory works of the project were awarded in the first half of 2015, and early construction works actually started in June 2017. The main civil works, undertaken by China Gezhouba Group Company Limited, started in February 2018. Work on the water diversion tunnel was inaugurated December 2018. In November 2019, WAPDA signed a Rs52.5 billion contract with a Chinese joint-venture, regarding electro-mechanical works. This contract includes design, supply and installation of the first stage's six 360 MW turbines, along with their generators, and transformers. As of December 2020, construction activities on the Main Civil Works (02 diversion tunnels, underground powerhouse, access tunnels), Right Bank Access Road, the relocation of

Karakoram Highway The Karakoram Highway (, ), also known as the KKH, National Highway 35 (), N-35, and the ChinaPakistan Friendship Highway, is a National Highways of Pakistan, national highway which extends from Hasan Abdal in the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab p ...

, Project Colony, 132 kV transmission line, and Resettlement Sites for affected people are underway.

Funding

The project cost was revised from an initial Rs486.093 billion to Rs510.980 billion, mainly because of escalation of land cost. Project is being financed by the

(US$588 million), the local commercial financing from a consortium of local banks (Rs144 billion), and foreign commercial financing from Credit Suisse Bank ($350 million). WAPDA will also inject its equity equivalent to 15% of the project base cost. On 1 April 2020, the World Bank approved an additional US$700 million in financing, with the funds to be used for the 765 kV transmission line that will complete the first 2,160 MW phase of the project on the Indus River. In June 2024, US$1 billion in additional financing for the Dasu Hydropower Project was approved by the World Bank.

Incidents

References

{{Indus River dams Dams under construction Dams in Pakistan Hydroelectric power stations in Pakistan Upper Kohistan District Gravity dams Dams on the Indus River Roller-compacted concrete dams