Pakistan seeks US funding for Bhasha Dam

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan on Thursday sought funding from the United States for the construction of Bhasha Diamer Dam and other projects.
Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf told the reporters after meeting with the US delegation led by Senior Adviser to US president on Economy David Lipton that they have sought financial assistance from US for the construction of hydel power projects. “We have informed them that a total of 2,000 MW of electricity would be added in the system by this year’s end”.
According to a statement the US delegation was briefed on the power and energy sectors. They were appraised that sector-wise gas consumption was 3,504 MMCFD. In the mid-term planning side, the delegation was briefed on the various projects being undertaken by the government and the exploitation of the domestic resources whereby four gas fields in Sindh were being connected to main supply lines by the year 2013 to generate 300 MMCFD.
Information on exploration in the Balochistan gas fields was also provided. The progress on the Turkmenistan Afghanistan Pakistan India (TAPI) pipeline was discussed. The delegation was told of Pakistan’s concern about security in Afghanistan.
The delegation was briefed about the exploitation of the Thar Coal project. The meeting was attended by Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Minister for Petroleum Naveed Qamar, Minister of State Hina Rabbani Khar, Planning Commission chairman and federal secretaries of the concerned ministries.