50 Years of Tarbela Dam marked with commemorative postage stamp

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Post issued a commemorative postage stamp worth 50 Rupees to mark 50 years of the Tarbela Dam — the country’s largest water reservoir along the Indus River.

Additional Director General (Operation) Pakistan Post Rizwan Javed Hashmi unveiled the commemorative postage stamp at a ceremony held at WAPDA House with Chairman WAPDA Engr Lt Gen Sajjad Ghani (Retd) as the chief guest.

The ceremony was attended by the Post Master General (Central Punjab), Deputy Post Master General (Admn), WAPDA’s Member Finance, Member Water, Member Power, Secretary, and GMs from across the country.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chairman thanked the Pakistan Post for issuance of the commemorative postage stamp.

He said that the Tarbela Dam is a testament to Pakistan’s engineering prowess and commitment to the socio-economic development of the country. “The commemorative postage stamp is a fitting tribute to this iconic project. The postage stamp will serve as a reminder of Tarbela Dam’s significance for generations to come,” he said.

Later, the Additional Director General (Operation), on behalf of the Pakistan Post, presented an album of the commemorative postage stamp to the Chairman.

It is important to note that the Tarbela Dam, completed in 1974, has been playing an instrumental role in economic development and social uplift in Pakistan during the last 50 years.

The contribution the Tarbela Dam Project has made towards progress in the country can be judged from the fact that it has released 406 million acre-feet (MAF) of stored water from the reservoir for agriculture and contributed 590,361 million units of low-cost and environment-friendly hydel electricity to the National Grid.

The economic and financial benefits of one MAF of water in Pakistan are estimated at US$ 1,000 million (US$ 1 billion). Therefore, total benefits accrued from Tarbela Dam during the last 50 years stand at more than four hundred billion dollars.