The Power Plan 2005-09 prepared by the Water and Power Ministry for initial consideration proposed to the government that at least Rs 100 billion would be required for power generation per year to ensure availability of electricity for domestic and industrial consumption.
However, the plan remained silent on the proposed Kalabagh Dam, which is estimated to generate 3,600MW electricity.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that the ministry in next five-year power plan did not give the names of any of the proposed mega projects for power generation.
The ministry has proposed three mega power projects that may include the Bhasha Dam, which had recently got a consensus vote of Centre and the federating units.
The government is puzzled with the serious resistance being shown by Sindh and the NWFP on the construction of Kalabagh Dam. "It is controversial and is not included in the plan," the sources said.
"The ministry can start building the reservoir on a short notice if the Centre and provincial governments reached a consensus," the sources said.
The proposed demand of Rs 100 billion will be much higher as the federal government had allocated a little over Rs 28 billion for hydel power generation in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for 2004-05. The allocation for both water and power sector in 2003-04 was not more than Rs 24 billion.
The ministry had initially demanded Rs 80 billion for water and power sector in the current fiscal's PSDP, which was rejected by the Finance Ministry with the plea that making such huge allocation would affect the development projects of other ministries and departments.
The plan includes 30 raw hydel power generation sites in the NWFP having the capacity of 50MW and above, the sources said.
With the commissioning of these hydropower projects, Wapda would be able to generate over 13,000MW additional electricity. The sites are Dasu at River Indus, Chor Nullah System in Kohistan, Korang, Swat Scheme B, Kunar River 1st stage Naran Mansehra, and a number of other projects.
Some experts do believe that Pakistan has the potential of generating around 42,000MW electricity through hydel project to meet the increasing power consumption.
Some of the projects, the sources said, have been proposed by the private sector, which is eager to actively participate in the power generation projects.