The government has conditionally approved the long-delayed Dasu hydropower project, now carrying a revised price tag of Rs. 1.74 trillion—a staggering 240 percent jump from its original estimate of Rs. 479 billion.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC), chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, gave the go-ahead on Wednesday, primarily to keep the door open for ongoing loan negotiations with international lenders. The 2,160-megawatt project’s per-unit electricity cost has now ballooned to Rs. 8.79, making it significantly pricier than initially planned.

In the same meeting, ECNEC also approved the construction of a new border crossing at Wagah with India and the establishment of 30 anti-smuggling posts along the Indus River and in Balochistan, with a combined cost of Rs. 15 billion.

To finance the Dasu project, the government is seeking $1 billion in fresh loans from the World Bank, supplementing an existing $517 million loan. Plans are also underway to secure $400 million in commercial loans backed by World Bank guarantees, alongside Rs. 350 billion in domestic financing.

A previous government inquiry attributed the project’s cost escalation to several factors, including delays in land acquisition by local authorities, increased security expenses following attacks on contractors, and shared lapses among Chinese contractors, WAPDA, and the Planning Commission.