Winner of the Job

One of the world's major reclamation projects moved a step ahead last week. Meeting in Paris, representatives of Pakistan and the World Bank finally selected the contractor who will build the giant Tarbela Dam on the Indus River in remote West Pakistan. Winner of the job, with a bid of $623 million for the eight-year project, is a consortium of French and Italian companies led by Impregilo of Milan.

Second Lowest. Impregilo and its partners had actually submitted the second lowest bid to build what will eventually be the largest earthen dam in history. Lower by $75 million was another consortium of companies in Germany and Switzerland headed by the German construction company Hochtief. But when the Germans and Swiss reviewed their figures, they asked to be allowed to raise the original bid by $50 million. Pakistani officials demurred. They gave the job instead to Impregilo, which has already gained impressive dam-building experience from projects in the Middle East and Africa.

Tarbela will be the major link in a $2 billion project to provide hydroelectric power and irrigation water for 50 million people and 33 million acres of land in West Pakistan. A second dam, the Mangla, 40 miles away on the Jhelum River, was completed last year, twelve months ahead of schedule, by U.S. contractors. The two big dams, plus smaller barrage dams and 40,000 miles of large and small canals, will interconnect five rivers flowing through West Pakistan to provide one of the world's best-developed irrigation systems. In addition, Tarbela and Mangla together will ultimately generate nearly 3,000,000 kilowatts of power.

Prestige & Necessity. To build Tarbela's 9,000-ft.-long, 470-ft-high main embankment, nearly as much earth will have to be shifted as was excavated for the Panama Canal. Four half-mile-long tunnels, each 45 ft. in diameter, must be dug through the rock of surrounding mountains to bring water into the electric generators and irrigation releases. Eventually a 50-mile reservoir will form behind the dam to provide water for crops during West Pakistan's long dry season. So much silt does the Indus carry--twice as much as the Nile at flood season--that the reservoir will be nearly silt-filled in 50 years. To overcome this problem, a link will be dug to the Haro River, which flows near the Indus, and a second reservoir will be created.

For Pakistan, the Indus Basin project represents something more than national prestige. Until British India was partitioned into two nations, the area of West Pakistan served bv the dams got its water from rivers whose headwaters are now in unfriendly India. India will be free to cut off Pakistan's flow of water from the east in 1970 and use it for Indian purposes. Developing a whole new water system along the Indus, Pakistan must therefore have much of it ready by 1970, and is gladly paying bonuses to contractors who complete their portions ahead of schedule.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.