ISLAMABAD: The 969MW Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project has faced another setback as the financiers from the Middle East have halted loan of $433 million after huge increase in cost of the project to $4.21 billion.
According to the media reports, the project cost had surged to $2.74 billion from $1.8 billion during the rule of the PPP government but it had now jumped to $4.21 billion.
Pakistan had kicked off work on the Neelum-Jhelum River in Azad Jammu and Kashmir to secure water supplies but India also developed the Kishanganga hydroelectric power project on the river, which led to a legal battle between the two countries in the International Court of Arbitration.
The disclosure about the loan being denied by the Middle East lenders was made to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy on June 18, said the report.
Earlier, the project had to be finished by October 2015, but the deadline has now been revised to November 30, 2016.
