Very encouraging news for NWFP and Pakistan…
US firm to invest $1bn in dam project
A spokesman of a US company, AMZO Corporation of Maryland said that the company would invest about US$1 billion for developing Munda Multipurpose Dam Project (MMDP) in the areas of NWFP according to the approval of the qualification. The spokesman said the Ministry of Water and Power and Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) have approved the qualification of AMZO Corporation for developing the MMDP in the private sector on Build, Own Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis. “AMZO will be the first Corporation which is going to invest US$1 billion in Pakistan especially in the multipurpose project,” the spokesman said. The project entails a 703 feet high dam on the Swat River, about 37 km from Peshawar city with a water storage reservoir of 1.3 million acre feet and power generation capacity of 740MW.
The project will be completed with an estimated cost of about US $1 billion. The spokesman said that this is for the first time, not only in the history of Pakistan but in the world that a multipurpose hydropower project like MMDP has been given in the private sector for development.
The MMDP will bring tremendous boost to the social and economic uplift to the backward areas of the Mahmund and Malakand agencies in particular and the province in general, he said. The project will ensure drinking water supply, basic health and education facilities, electricity and communications, the spokesman added. The water storage will provide new irrigation facilities as well as augmentation of existing agriculture and improve annual cropping intensity from 43 per cent to 180 per cent. Another important benefit of the project will be flood mitigation by lowering the peaks in river downstream of Munda.