Re: Pro’s and Con’s of Kalabagh Dam
Here is quite a detailed report, available here:
http://www.khyberwatch.com/kalabagh/iftikhar1.htm
It discusses the techinical details, as well as why this so called ‘saviour dam’ is opposed so vociferously by those outside of Punjab.
The Kalabagh dam (KBD) is proposed to be located on the River Indus at about 120 miles downstream of Tarbela Dam, 92 miles downstream the confluence of Kabul and Indus Rivers and 16 miles upstream of the existing Jinnah Barrage. The site is a narrow and deep channel extending over 5-mile distance where the river is about 1,300 feet wide.
According to the PC-II of the Project, “KBD was initiated by GOP in 1953, and until 1973, the project was basically considered as a storage project for meeting the irrigation needs, and consequently, rapid increases in the cost of energy have greatly enhanced the priority of KBD as a power project”.
The project planning report, circulated in March '84, tried to establish the technical and economic feasibility of the project, and the detailed designs/tender documents, commenced in March '84, and were completed by December 1985.
The feasibility study and documentation have cost the GOP around one billion rupees so far.
According to one of WAPDA’s latest briefs on the KBD Project, the dam and its objectives are described in the following words:“It is expected to be a 260-ft high structure and would create a reservoir 6.1 million acres feet (MAF) of usable storage. The annual generation of energy would amount to about 11,200 GWh, generated by hydro power plant of 2400 MW capacity. This capacity may ultimately be increased to 3600 MW, making KBD one of the largest hydro-generation dams in Asia. The total project cost covering civil and power facilities, as estimated by the consultants at June 1987 prices, will be about US $5.153 billion, including the cost of interest during construction, custom duties, taxes and price contingencies”.
(Note: At the present day’s construction costs, the dam is expected to cost around US $8 billion)