Hydropower projects to get

Islamabad is likely to allocate a hefty sum in the next fiscal budget for the country’s hydropower projects, documents and reports suggest.
A document based on computations for the projects to be executed by the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) has proposed Rs140 billion.
This amount as the authority believes is required for 15 projects. The total cost has been estimated to be Rs1363 billion.
The power division’s demand of Rs140 billion for the next PSDP 2020-21 is Rs19 billion higher than the current fiscal.
Of the total, Rs 38 billion is Foreign Exchange Component (FEC) while Rs 102 billion is the local component.
In the list of projects, three would require Rs.100 billion against the total cost of Rs620 billion. They would generate 3698 MW of electricity.
For refurbishing four Hydro Power stations with a generation capacity of 580 MW, the ministry will demand Rs14.67 billion against the total cost of Rs80.72 billion.
For conducting feasibility studies of two hydropower projects worth Rs1.020 billion, a demand Rs350 billion will be made.
For yet other three hydro projects worth Rs1.742 billion, the proposed allocation will be Rs836 million.
The total demand to be made in the new year is only 10 percent of the total cost of 17 Hydropower projects costing Rs1364.50 billion.
For the ongoing three hydropower projects of 2427 MW, costing Rs 660 billion, the allocation in the PSDP 2019-20 was Rs 50.62 billion. The Throw forward available for the projects is Rs 114.93 billion. The total expenditure till June 2019 was Rs 545 billion.
For the hydropower projects which are at the initial stage with generation capacity of 3698 MW costing Rs 619.43 billion, the total allocation in the PSDP stood at Rs 58.65 billion.
The total expenditure till June 2019 was Rs 80.33 billion while the throw Forward available is Rs 541 billion.
For the refurbishment Hydro Power stations of 580 MW, a sum of Rs10.571 has been allocated in the PSDP 2019-20.
The total cost of refurbishment stood at Rs 80.717 billion, with an expenditure of Rs 8.46 billion till June 2019 and throw forward of Rs 72.26 billion.
For the feasibilities of four hydropower projects with the capacity of 8025 MW with the total cost of Rs 2.59 billion, Rs 532 million has been allocated in 2019-20.
Throw forward of Rs 1.82 billion, while the total expenditures till June 2019 were Rs 769 million. For the other three projects of Rs 1.742 billion, Rs 401 million was allocated in the PSDP 2019-20