ADB declines to fund Pakistan dam project

The ADB has refused to commit funds for Pakistan’s $14 billion dam project on Indus river in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), two years after the World Bank declined to fund the project following Islamabad’s refusal to seek an NoC from India

The dam is to be constructed in PoK over the Indus river, seen here in Ladakh. PIC/AFP

Islamabad: The ADB has refused to commit funds for Pakistan’s $14 billion dam project on Indus river in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), two years after the World Bank declined to fund the project following Islamabad’s refusal to seek an NoC from India.

“We did not really make any commitment. This is a very big project," Asian Development Bank (ADB) president Takehiko Nakao said on Wednesday at a joint news conference with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on the conclusion of the 15th ministerial meeting of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) programme.

He said presently the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was conducting a feasibility study on the dam.

Repeated efforts to rope in the World Bank as a co-lender had failed two years ago when the government declined to seek a No Objection Certificate from India for the project.

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