President Asif Ali Zardari is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of Diamer-Bhasha Dam on Tuesday (today).
The $14 billion dollar hydropower project would generate 4500 MW electricity. The dam’s design took 27 long years for completion. The dam will be built on Indus River, some 315 km upstream of Tarbela Dam, 165 km downstream of Gilgit and 40 km downstream of Chilas.
According to the proposed design, the dam would have a maximum height of 270metres and a reservoir of about 7,500,000 acre feet (9.25×109 m3), with live storage of more than 6,400,000 acre feet (7.89×109 m3). The dam would cover an area of 110sq km and extend 100 km upstream of the dam site up to Raikot Bridge on the Karakoram Highway.
