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China to extend Rs10bn supplier credit
Tuesday,December 02,2008 Posted: 15:23 BJT(0723 GMT)
  From:The News    Article type:Reproduced


ISLAMABAD: China will extend Rs10 billion supplier credit out of total cost of Rs12 billion for construction of Karakorum Highway road to establish linkages with the site of the Basha dam, which will help to transport heavy machinery to the site of $12.6 billion cost of the dam.

For upgradation of the Karakorum Highway project, Pakistan and China have agreed to bear cost of 15:85 per cent ratios respectively over the next three years 2008-2011. Islamabad has released its share of Rs2 billion for construction of this linkage road to the Basha dam site. The major chunk of 85 per cent cost of this project will be borne by China and Beijing will provide supplier credit to Islamabad to this effect.

According to the minutes of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC), that recently met with the prime minister in the chair, also decided to cut down the estimated cost for acquisition of procurement of the Basha dam land from Rs116 billion to Rs60 billion by excluding cost of certain accounts from the project.

“The government’s decision to exclude two accounts resulted into saving Rs56 billion,” said a high-level official of the government while talking to The News here on Monday. “The ECNEC cut down interest cost during construction (ICD) head as well as utility charges which were incorporated in the initial official, which was tabled before the ECNEC,” official sources said and added that this exclusion resulted into reduction in cost of acquisition of land to Rs60 billion only.

Some participants of the ECNEC meeting objected the Ministry of Water and Power included utility charges in the estimated cost of acquisition of land at a time when there would be no cost in this regard because construction of the dam would be started at latter stages probably by the next fiscal year 2009-2010.

The official claimed that the government has released Rs2 billion for construction of link road to Basha dam, which will ensure transportation of heavy machinery to the site of the dam. The dam’s work will be started by the next fiscal year but it will reach its peak in the next two to three year period.

According to the ministry out of total allocated money for land acquisition of the Basha dam, there will be no foreign component involved in it and all resources will be provided from local avenues. The profile of the project states that there will be acquisition of land for the dam, reservoir and resettlement of 28,640 affected persons (4,135 households) and it will be multi-purpose dam with installed capacity of 4,500 Mega Watt (MW) and water storage capacity of 6.4 million acre feet (MAF). The submerged area of the dam will be 115 sqkm (28,500 acres) and it will be located at 315 km upstream of Tarbela dam and 40km down stream of Chilas, the district Kohistan.

(Source: English Site of Karachi)

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