The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has refused to offer funding for Pakistan’s $14 billion Diamer-Bhasha dam project on Indus river.
The project is expected to have a water storage capacity of more than six million acre feet and a power output of 4,500MW.
ADB president Takehiko Nakao was quoted by Dawn as saying: “We did not really make any commitment. This is a very big project.”
Nakao revealed the decision at a joint news conference with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on the conclusion of the 15th ministerial meeting of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) programme.
The bank president said that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was carrying out a feasibility study on the Diamer-Bhasha dam.
Nakao said: “We haven’t decided [whether to fund] this project yet because it needs big money.”
He added that the project calls for “formation of more partnerships” that could facilitate funding for it.
The bank has been advising the nation to take a “professional approach” to construct the dam as the funding cannot be provided by a single entity, country or group due to its huge financial requirements and the risk involved in it.
Pakistan’s efforts to bring in the World Bank as a co-lender for the project were not successful, as the country’s government refused to seek a NoC from India for the project, the publication said.
In August, ADB granted $810m loan to Pakistan to help improve the energy supply reliability and to meet increasing power demand.
The loan facility, which will be delivered in tranches and implemented from 2016 to 2026, will be used by the country to upgrade the transmission network, increase transmission capacity, and energy efficiency and security.