The senate was informed Friday that India has so far completed 33 dams for power generation on Chenab and Jhelum rivers and the construction on six is under way while 10 more are on the cards.
Answering a question raised by Senator S M Zafar, Federal Minister for Water and Power Naveed Qamar, in his written reply, informed the upper house that India, as per Indus Water Treaty, can build new run-of-the-river hydroelectric plants and storage capacity within the design criteria provided in annexure-D of the treaty.
Qamar added that under the treaty, India is required to supply information six months in advance before the construction of any plant. He said that as per information gathered from different sources, 17 power generation plants had been completed on River Chenab, 16 on River Jhelum. The minister also said that 5 plants were under construction at River Jhelum, one at the River Chenab while 10 more were likely to be built in future.
The minister also added that there was no limit on India to construct new hydroelectric plants on Western Rivers and India. He said that once information is given to Pakistan, the experts review the design of the plant and in case of objection the matter is then taken up under the Indus Water Treaty accordingly. Replying to another question, raised by Dr Ismail Bulaidi, the minister told the house that the estimated cost of Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline was around US $ 1.245 billion and the Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement had been signed in June 2009. He added and the project was in implementation phase. “The project implementation shall cover route survey, front and engineering design, bankable feasibility study, project’s physical construction, supervision and monitoring. He said that the first supply would be due by end of December 2014”, he further said. To another question raised again by S M Zafar, the minister told the Senate that the estimated cost of Sabakzai Dam was Rs 1960,823. The project was launched in 2003 after approval of the ECNEC while the total amount released for the project was Rs1753.274.
The house was informed that the project was completed in 2009 and handed over to the Balochistan government in 2010. Answering another question about import of electricity from Iran, Naveed Qamar told that house that around 39 MW of electricity was being imported from Iran as per agreement signed in 2002. He also added that India too had offered electricity and a group of experts was working on its feasibility. He said and the feasibility for importing 1000 MW of electricity from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan had been completed.
