Dam Design and Construction

WAPDA updates on construction of 2,160 MW Dasu hydropower

WAPDA updates on construction of 2,160 MW Dasu hydropower
(photo courtesy Water and Power Development Authority)

At the site of the 2,160 MW Dasu Hydropower Project, under construction on the Indus River in Pakistan, a major milestone has been met, with river diversion enabled through completion of one of the two diversion tunnels.

Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) is completing the Dasu project. The project will be completed in two stages. The first stage consists of installing a 2,160 MW hydropower plant, which could be expanded to 4,320 MW in a second phase. Once commissioned, the Dasu hydropower plant will power around 4 million households. The Dasu Hydropower Project is a vital component of the least-cost, green and clean energy generation plan of WAPDA. The project is being constructed upstream of Dasu town in Upper Kohistan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The diversion system is comprised of two tunnels, called tunnel A and tunnel B. Of these, tunnel B is complete, which has a discharge capacity sufficient to divert all of the water of the Indus River during the current lean flows season. The river is now flowing through tunnel B, a 1.33-km-long diversion tunnel that is 20 m wide and 23 m high, WAPDA said. Consequently, construction activities have begun on the starter dam, leading toward construction of the main dam for the Dasu Hydropower Project.

Tunnel A, a 1.5-km-long tunnel A, also 20 m wide and 23 m high, will be ready by mid April to cater for the increased water flows during the high-flows season, WAPDA said.

Stage I, currently under construction, will provide annual energy generation of 12 billion units and is likely to start electricity generation in 2026, according to a release. The 2,160 MW stage II, when implemented, will provide 9 billion units to the national grid.

The Dasu hydroelectric project is part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $65 billion investment plan aiming at connecting western China to southern Pakistan as part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.