Firm owned by PM's adviser wins bid for construction of Mohmand Dam

ISLAMABAD: The joint venture of Descon owned by Adviser to PM on Commerce, Textile, Industry and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood and Chinese company, China Gezhouba, has won the bid for the construction of the Rs309 billion Mohmand Dam.

Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) chairman confirmed that the joint venture of Descon and China Gezhouba has won the bid for the construction of the dam. “The other joint venture of Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) and Power China did not win the bid,” he added.

The WAPDA chairman further said that the contractor will mobilise to the site of the project within 10 weeks. “We are in a negotiation process with the winning bidder to further cut the costs,” the WAPDA chairman added.

However, top officials in the Ministry of Water and Power said that the project is being initiated in haste. Its land has not yet been acquired and a consultancy firm is yet to be finalised, they upheld.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Mian Javed Latif also expressed reservations over the bid. Speaking on Geo News programme Apas Ki Baat, the PML-N leader asked, “On what basis was this contract awarded? Is this not corruption?”

Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Nadeem Afzal Chan, who was also present on the show, said, “Even if the contract awarding process was transparent, Abdul Razak Dawood should issue a clarification.”

Descon is one of very few Pakistani multinational with over USD One Billion annual revenue with operations in seven countries. Voith Germany is one of major global companies in power turbines and recently did Tarbela IV project for WAPDA, said company.

Mohmand Dam

The groundbreaking of the project was to be held today (January 2) but was postponed owing to pressing engagements of the prime minister.

Mohammad Dam is the flood control dam and after its construction it will be able to store 300,000 cusecs of water. The cost of the said project in 2003 stood at $1 billion which has now swelled to $3 billion because of the inordinate delay during Musharraf regime.