A important project to incorporate cheaper electricity into Pakistan’s energy mix and demonstrate the country’s resilience against foes, the 2,160 megawatt Dasu hydropower project will get a $1 billion loan from the World Bank.
This represents the project’s third major World Bank financing. The project has been beset by delays and at least two terrorist assaults that targeted Chinese nationals working on it.
According to government reports, the $1 billion loan package is scheduled to be approved by the Washington-based lender’s Board of Directors in June, which is a little later than the initial plan to approve it during the third week of May.
The Dasu Hydropower Project is being carried out by China Gezhouba Group Company (CGGC) under the auspices of the World Bank and a group of commercial banks. Five Chinese nationals and one Pakistani were killed in a terrorist incident last month, which was the second attack on Chinese workers at the project site.
In July 2021, a suicide assault on a bus headed to the Dasu Hydropower Project claimed the lives of 10 Chinese nationals and injured twenty-six others. Pakistan compensated the Chinese nationals impacted by the terrorist acts with a total of $11.6 million.
The lender will provide an extra $1 billion in loans through the International Development Association (IDA) and its International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), according to a World Bank project document.
This is the lender’s third significant funding for the project; they already received $588.4 million for project preparations and an additional $700 million for building the transmission line that would carry the project’s power.
