The project is planned to be built on the left bank of the 9 km part of the Kunhar River from Paras to Sangarh Village.
Details
Hydro Power Project Balakot The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will fund part of the cost of the 300 MW Balakot hydropower project. The total cost of the project is estimated to be 750 million US dollars, of which ADB has committed to organize 580 million US dollars. The dam site on the Kunhar River is about 18 kilometers upstream of the main bridge in Balakot. The Balakot Hydropower Project is located on the Kunhar River in the Kunhar Valley, Mansehra District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. The project design including the entrance tunnel is planned to be on the left bank of the Kunhar River. The Balakot hydropower project will add 300 megawatts of electricity to the national grid, generate an annual income of approximately 1.3 billion rupees and provide ample employment opportunities. Malik Luqman, stated that this will boost the provincial economy and promote income-generating investment in the abundant hydropower KP. added that once completed, people in the area will have an affordable and trouble-free power supply.
Project will promote the provincial economy and promote income-generating investment in the abundance of KPK, and increase capacity and awareness of the impact of climate change, adaptation and mitigation measures. The design of the dam will include features designed to prevent catastrophic failures, including the adoption of high design standards. An emergency action plan will be formulated in consideration of analysis to mitigate the ultimate impact of the above-mentioned incidents. The loan will be co-financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as the main co-financing party. The environmental and social (ES) risks and impacts of the project have been assessed in accordance with the ADB Safeguard Policy Statement (SPS). To ensure a unified approach to the project Under the permission of the Environmental and Social Policy (ESP) of the AIIB, the ADB SPS will replace the AIIB’s ESP in the project. The typical environmental risks and impacts of the Mitigation plans have been developed to address these environmental and biodiversity impacts. The project will have a significant adverse impact on private and community land in the affected settlements.
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According to preliminary estimates, 887 people in 165 households will be affected by the project (PAP). The LARP, which is to address the impact of land acquisition, is being updated and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2021. Civil engineering is expected to create a large number of jobs, some of which will work with local community members. During the construction phase, specific contract terms will be introduced to manage working conditions and community health and safety.. Once the EPC contractor has prepared the detailed project design, the dam safety team will review it. Initial stakeholder consultations were conducted in the second quarter of 2017 and the third quarter of 2018, including door-to-door consultations with all households affected by the project. Negotiations on the LARP update process are still ongoing.