Govt rebuts claims of cancelling power-generation component of Diamer-Bhasha Dam

The Power Division on Saturday refuted a report that claimed that the government had cancelled the power-generation component of Diamer-Bhasha Dam.

The Diamer-Bhasha Dam project is located on the Indus River near Gilgit-Baltistan. It is set to have a gross water storage capacity of 8.1 MAF and an installed power generation capacity of 4,500 megawatts.

In a post on X on Saturday, the energy ministry’s Power Division termed the report by Brief, a reader-supported publication, as “fake news”.

It affirmed that the “Diamer Bhasha Dam generation component is a committed project in both existing and future IGCEP (Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan) documents”.

Brief cited what it claimed was a leaked government document from the Economic Affairs Division dated early this year. The outlet quoted a source and claimed that the government’s decision was based on “lobbying” by independent power producers (IPPs) who got “vast sums even when their plants produce little or no power”.

“Pakistan already has too much generating capacity”, the report cited the document as saying, adding the dam’s 4,500-megawatt hydropower complex could be “built at some unspecified later date while Diamer-Bhasha can be built up as a water reservoir for now”.

In its rebuttal, the Power Division clarified that the “new IPPs business has permanently closed in Pakistan after the establishment of a free electricity market by the present government”.

“Any attempt to link IPPs with this project and sensationalise it is based on nothing but fake assumptions,” the division stated.