The Pakistani government, through the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), has awarded a PKR442bn (US$2.8bn) contract to a joint venture made of the Chinese state-owned company Power China and subsidiary of Pakistan’s army Frontiers Work to build the 4.5 GW Diamer-Basha hydropower project on the Indus river. The awarded contract encompasses diversion system, main dam, access bridge and a 21 MW hydro power plant. The entire project is estimated to cost PKR 1,406bn (US$8.8bn) and construction work is expected to last 10 years. The project is opposed by India due to its impact over water resources for climate-vulnerable farmlands.
In April 2020, Pakistan secured a US$700m loan from the World Bank to finance the first phase of the 4,320 MW Dasu hydropower project on the main Indus river, in the Kohsitan district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region. The credit line has a 25-year maturity including a 5-year grace period. It will finance the transmission line, which will connect the project to the Pakistani power grid.
The first phase of the Dasu hydropower project is developed by a joint venture between GE Hydro China and Power China Zhongnan Engineering Corporation for US$474m, including US$244m in foreign currency. In 2017, the Pakistan state-owned Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) secured a PKR144bn (US$933m) local currency loan from a consortium of seven Pakistani banks. In addition, it obtained a $350 million from Credit Suisse, using a World Bank’s partial credit guarantee.
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