PESHAWAR – The stalled work on Gomal Zam Dam has resumed. The development comes as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has released first tranche of $20 million to WAPDA for completion of multipurpose water project in South Waziristan Agency.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Engineer Karimul Haq the acting project director of Gomal Zam Dam said that the work had been at halt awaiting financial agreement between USAID and WAPDA authorities. He said 94 per cent of the dam work on its power house work (excluding irrigation system) had already been completed. He said the Chinese contractors had returned and now the work was under way.
He hoped remaining 6 percent work would be completed by the end of 2011. “The USAID has now agreed to lend $40 million for the project, of which the first installment has been received”, he added. The Gomal Dam is being constructed at a site about 35 kilometers from Tank in South Waziiristan Agency on the Gomal and Zhob rivers in Khajoi Kach area.
It would be a huge water reservoir with a capacity to generate about 17.04MW of electricity.