The 1,530-megawatt “Tarbela Dam 5th Extension Hydropower Project” was under construction in Pakistan. The China-based “Power Construction Corporation of China Limited” (PCCCL) company had been carrying out the protective barrier wall work for Tunnel 5 of this project.
In this situation, an accident occurred last Monday evening when the protective wall of Tunnel 5 collapsed. As a result, water suddenly gushed out from the dam reservoir. Following this, an emergency was declared, all construction work was immediately stopped, and the workers were evacuated to safe locations.
This is the second major accident to occur in this project after 2025. Earlier, in a 15-page investigative report released by a leading Pakistani news organization regarding another temporary barrage breach in the project, it was pointed out that “the accident was caused by changes made to the barrage’s design in violation of the contract terms.”
After the contract period, it has come to light that the three main parties responsible for the project—the contracting company, the engineering team, and WAPDA—were involved in contract violations in the changes made outside the rules. In other words, the contracting company PCCCL proposed a weak rock-filled dam design that was not permitted under the contract.
Without properly examining its technical shortcomings, the engineering team accepted it with conditions, and as the construction work was nearing completion, the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) also approved it.
BREAKING NEWS:- THE T5 Project of Pakistan’s Tarbela Dam has COLLAPSED.
— THEINTEL24X7 (@THEIntel24x7) November 9, 2026
This Dam was built with Chinese Co-Operation with an estimate of +$1 Billion.
Scary Visuals are being recorded by the Locals. Confirmed by the Local Government. pic.twitter.com/AWrZzyuS2p
Although WAPDA blamed the dam breach that occurred then on flooding, the inquiry committee has clarified that the inflow recorded at the time was within normal levels and that the structural failure was caused by the failure to provide an adequate protective layer.
Furthermore, because informal payments were made for temporary works, the government’s right to seek compensation from the contracting company after the accident has also been weakened.
Due to these series of irregularities, the project’s estimated cost, which was initially 82.36 billion Pakistani rupees, has increased by more than 285 percent and has now risen to 317 billion Pakistani rupees. The project’s completion date has also been pushed back from 2026 to June 2028.
In this project, which is being implemented with $700 million in loan financing from the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the cost of electricity generation is estimated to rise to 27–28 Pakistani rupees per unit.
Since this is the highest tariff in Pakistan, the project now faces the risk of becoming economically unviable. Critics believe that the primary reasons for the project’s downfall are the poor planning by Chinese companies and the contract violations by WAPDA management.
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