Key Takeaways
- Government inquiry committee holds all three key stakeholders responsible for the collapse.
- Project cost has risen from Rs82 billion to Rs317 billion due to unauthorised design changes.
- Incident led to a two-year delay in project completion, now targeted for June 2028.
An independent inquiry committee has held all three key stakeholders — the contractor, consultant and employer (Wapda) — responsible for the collapse of the cofferdam at the Tarbela-5 Extension Hydropower Project. The incident, which occurred in August 2025, has resulted in significant cost overruns and project delays.
According to the three-member committee led by Federal Flood Commission chairman Ather Hameed, the cofferdam collapse was due to a series of extra-contractual steps and contractual violations at all three levels. The contractor submitted a proposal to change the design of the cofferdam, which was contractually not allowed; the engineer accepted the design deficiency conditionally without ensuring technical compliance; and the employer approved it when construction was about to finish, without questioning the contractual validity of the design change and the technical deficiency.
The inquiry report, seen by Dawn, states that the provisions stating rights and obligations of all parties provided in the contracts (civil works and consultancy services) were overlooked and ignored respectively. This led to the construction of a vulnerable cofferdam resulting in structural failure, causing flooding, delays, and financial loss to the T5 Project.
The project's cost has escalated from Rs82 billion to Rs317 billion due to these unauthorised design changes. As a result, the levelised generation cost over 30 years may rise to around Rs27-28 per unit — the country’s highest so far for renewable energy — making it economically unviable and unsustainable.
The project, which involves $700 million in loans from the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, is now targeted for completion by end-June 2028 instead of 2026. The committee noted that the collapse not only caused immediate suspension of works but also triggered cascading cost vulnerabilities under multiple contractual and financial heads.
The contractors involved are Power Construction Corporation of China Ltd (PCCCL), HEI, and HEM, while the consultant is the UK’s MM Pakistan-BIDR China. The employer is Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda).
This incident highlights the critical importance of adherence to contractual agreements and technical compliance in large-scale infrastructure projects involving foreign loans worth billions of dollars.
