by AMER SIAL
The World Bank (WB) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on Wednesday signed a loan agreement for the 1410 MW Tarbela-V Extension Hydro Power Project for which both financial institutions will provide $690 million.
Economic Affairs Division Secretary Tariq Bajwa signed the loans and grants agreements on the behalf of the government while representatives of WAPDA, NTDC, government of Balochistan, and FATA Secretariat signed the project agreements.
World Bank’s country director and AIIB procurement advisor signed the agreements on the behalf of the World Bank and AIIB, respectively. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was also present at the signing ceremony.
The projects signed include 1410 MW Tarbela-V Extension Hydro Power Project for which the WB will provide IBRD credit of $390 million and AIIB $300 million.
The project will facilitate a sustainable expansion of Pakistan’s electricity generation capacity by an installation of three additional power generating units having installed capacity of 470 MW each (total 1410MW) on existing Tunnel-5 without affecting the capacity for irrigation release. The total installed capacity of Tarbela Dam after completion of the Extension-V will rise to 6298 MW.
The total cost of the project is $823.5 million, the remaining $133.5 million will be funded by WAPDA ($124.5 million) and National Transmission and Despatch Company ($ 9 million) for an additional Transmission line from Tarbela to evacuate additional power.
The Governance and Policy Programs for Balochistan and FATA will be funded through Grants of $16 million and $14 million, respectively, under MDTF-II with the objects to strengthen the capacity for sales tax on services collection, and improve accountability in public financial management and public service delivery in the education and irrigation sectors in Balochistan.
The projects aim to strengthen upstream (planning & financial) and downstream (service delivery) government systems.
On this occasion, the finance minister thanked the WB and the AIIB for extending their continuous support to the present government in its efforts to achieve the sustainable economic development of the country.
The minister said that due to these efforts, the government has succeeded in overcoming the energy shortage to a large extent resultantly the load shedding duration has been curtailed for the domestic consumers while uninterrupted supply is being provided to the industries.
