Defying all odds, Work on Dasu Dam in full swing

PESHAWAR, Oct. 27 (Gwadar pro)- China Gezhouba Group Company (CGGC) on Monday resumed work on the 4300MW Dasu hydropower project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), three months after the deadly attack that killed 13 people including nine Chinese nationals on July 13.

The Chinese company supervising the project instructed its entire Pakistani staff to return to work.

Minister of Water Resources Chaudhry Moonis Elahi announced the positive development in a tweet. “The Dasu hydropower project is a big project of the country and it is a milestone of Pak-China friendship. Alhamdulilah (all praise to God), attempts made by anti-Pakistan elements to sabotage Dasu hydropower project have met with failure,” he tweeted.

Upper Kohistan Deputy Commissioner (DC) Muhammad Arif Khan Yousafzai also confirmed that work on Dasu Dam had resumed.

Yousafzai mentioned that all security arrangements have been made to start the construction work. In this regard, he said, security forces have been deployed all the way from the residential area to the construction site.

In a mobilisation notice, CGGC acknowledged that the security protection of the project area has been substantially improved by Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA).

The firm directed its employees to bring Covid-19 vaccination records and non-criminal certificates with them while the locals of Dasu shall take medical certificates from local clinics, and non-locals shall take a Covid-19 nucleic acid test report or a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test within 48 hours.

The decision to suspend work was taken on July 14, after a bus carrying a construction team of Chinese engineers and local employees to work from residential camps fell into a ravine in Upper Kohistan following an explosion due to a suicide attack, killing at least 13 people, including nine Chinese.

The construction work at the hydropower project site was stopped after consultation with the local civil administration, WAPDA, and CGGC.

At least 45 Chinese companies are currently working on various construction projects across the country, including CPEC projects.