Minister Wattoo and Wapda chief tour Diamer-Basha and Dasu sites

Federal minister Wattoo and the chairman of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) visited the Diamer-Basha Dam site and the Dasu hydropower project, Business Recorder reported, touring two of the largest hydropower schemes under construction in the country.

The report gave no account of what was said at either site. It carried no revised completion schedule, no fresh figures on construction progress and no statement on cost. It also did not specify which ministry the minister, Wattoo, holds. Skardu Times was unable to independently confirm the details of the visit.

Diamer-Basha Dam is being built on the Indus near Basha in Diamer district of Gilgit-Baltistan, and is the larger of the two works, combining storage with an attached powerhouse. The Dasu hydropower project lies downstream on the same river in Upper Kohistan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and is being developed in stages as a run-of-river scheme. Both are Wapda projects, and both are meant to add generation and storage capacity to the national grid.

Senior officials tour the two sites periodically, and visits of this kind are ordinarily used to review construction progress, land acquisition and the pace of work with contractors. The report did not say whether any of those subjects came up, whether the minister met the Gilgit-Baltistan government or the district administration in Diamer, or whether the delegation inspected any other site in the region.

No separate statement from Wapda or the federal government accompanying the visit was carried in the report.