Govt to Acquire Rs. 827 Billion External Financing for Diamer-Bhasha Project

The Government of Pakistan will acquire financing of Rs. 827 billion from various donor agencies and banks for establishing 4,500 MW power generation facilities at the Diamer-Bhasha Dam Project. The Federal government and WAPDA will provide 11 percent funding of the total estimated cost of Rs. 933.58 billion of the Power Generation Facilities at Bhasha, while the rest will be arranged through loans from various sources, according to official documents available with ProPakistani. The financing will be arranged through PSDP support of the Government of Pakistan, equity from WAPDA’s resources, donor agencies, supplier credit/export credit agencies, and local and foreign banks financing. As per the information shared by WAPDA with the federal government, the authority has identified source-wise proposed financing for the project. The federal government will provide Rs. 70 billion (7 percent) through Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), WAPDA will provide an equity share of Rs. 36 billion, which is 4 percent of the total cost. A major portion of the funding will be obtained through Foreign Commercial Financing. It has been identified that Rs. 401 billion (43 percent) will be obtained from Foreign Commercial Financing. Through local commercial financing Rs. 200 billion (21 percent) will be acquired, while Rs. 229 billion (24 percent) will be obtained through IDC Financing. The project is scheduled to start generation by 2029-30 and will add 4,500 MW of power generation to the national grid.