GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN MINISTRY OF ENERGY (POWER DIVISION) Public Disclosure Authorized Dasu Transmission Line Project Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) (Volume I: Main Report) Public Disclosure Authorized National Transmission & Despatch Company (NTDC) November 2019 Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Dasu Transmission Line Project EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Dasu Transmission Line (DTL) Project (the Project) is being developed by the National Transmission & Despatch Company (NTDC, the Project Proponent) of Pakistan with funding from the World Bank (WB). The Project consists of a 250 kilometers (km) long, 765 kilovolt (kV), double circuit transmission line from the Dasu Hydropower Project (DHP) located in Dasu, Kohistan to the proposed Mansehra Grid Station (MGS), which is 140 km from DHP and then to Islamabad West Grid Station (IWGS), which is 110 km from MGS. The transmission line consists of 674 towers, among them 217 are angle or tension towers and the remaining 457 are suspension or tangent towers. The Dasu Hydropower Project is already under implementation by the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) with the support of the World Bank and is expected to be commissioned by 2023. NTDC have undertaken the present environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) of the proposed DTL Project including Mansehra Grid Station in accordance with the national regulatory requirements and the World Bank operational policies. In addition to the present ESIA, NTDC has also prepared two Resettlement Action Plans (RAPs), one for the MGS and the second one for transmission line, to respectively address the social and resettlement impacts of the project. The RAPs are presented under separate covers. The DHP1 is the first large scale hydropower project being implemented by WAPDA on Indus River in the northern region of Pakistan. The DHP’s first stage of 2,160 megawatts (MW) is expected to be on the grid by December 2023, while its full capacity of 5,400 MW is expected to be achieved by December 2025. Therefore, the DTL Project is required to be completed six months prior to the Commercial Operation Date of the first stage of DHP. No transmission lines exist in the area that can evacuate the power to be generated by DHP. Therefore, the power evacuation from DHP will be fully dependent upon the completion of DTL. Regulatory and Policy Frameworks In consideration of the likely impacts of the Project and in discussion with the World Bank, it is concluded that the Project falls into Category A or under Schedule II (as per national regulations). The project is expected to have significant adverse social and environmental impacts that are diverse, irreversible or unprecedented and also due to its association with the DHP. The national/provincial legislation and regulations require the Project Proponent to conduct environmental and social assessment of the proposed project and obtain approval from the relevant provincial environmental protection agency, before initiating the project. Similarly, the WB environmental and social safeguard policies require the project proponent seeking the Bank’s financing to carry out environmental and social assessment of the proposed project and obtain the Bank’s clearance. In addition, World Bank Group’s Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) Guidelines are applicable to the proposed project, in particular, General Guidelines (April 2007), Guidelines for Electric Power Transmission and Distribution (April 2007), and Guidelines for the Construction Materials Extraction (April 2007). The present assessment has been carried out in response to these requirements. 1 A separate environmental and social impact assessment has been carried out for DHP in 2013-14. National Transmission & Despatch Company (NTDC) ES-1 Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Dasu Transmission Line Project Analysis of Alternatives The analysis of alternatives carried out as part of this ESIA concludes that the ‘no-project’ alternative is not acceptable since there is no other possibility of evacuating power from the DHP and future hydropower plants that are planned to be constructed along the Indus River. There is no other transmission line in the area to evacuate power. Alternates for the DTL route were considered at two levels. First, two broad routing options were considered. One of these routes started from Dasu and followed the Indus River up to Pattan, and from there it turned east and crossed the Palas valley, passed through Battagram and Mansehra districts, circumvented the Tarbela reservoir and reached the grid location site in Attock district of Punjab. The main advantage of this route was the shortest length of the proposed transmission line. However, the Palas valley is an internationally recognized biodiversity hotspot, with good population of Western Tragopan pheasants and other sensitive species and stands of pristine moist temperate forest. The selected alignment avoided the Palas valley and followed the Indus river up to Thakot, from where it also turned east to Battagram and reached to the proposed Mansehra Grid Station, from where it followed more or less the same route as for the earlier option and reached the proposed site of Islamabad West Grid Station in Attock district. This route is longer in length than the first option, however, it has been preferred over the first option because it avoids the Palas valley and its important habitat. At the second level of evaluating routing options, the entire route was divided in several segments and for each segment, several options were considered. Here the main criterion for selecting the final alignment was to avoid large settlements and towns. Further, the tower locations were also selected in a way to minimize impacts on houses and farm lands. The site for Mansehra GS was carefully selected among three alternatives. The location in Sawan Maira was selected due to the availability of required land, and flat terrain, with no resettlement requirements, as the area selected is barren and located away from the settlements. During the design phase, various voltage levels for the proposed DTL were also considered. One option was to use 500kV as the voltage level of the transmission line. The main advantage of this option was that the 500kV system already exists in Pakistan and NTDC has a lot of experience of operating such lines. Another advantage was that the RoW of this voltage level is 70m as against 80m for the 765kV transmission line. However, the main disadvantage of this system is that two transmission lines of 500kV would be needed to evacuate power generated by the DHP and other future power generating plants. The second option considered was to use 765kV as the voltage level of the transmission line. The advantage of this option is that only one transmission line would be needed and hence its cost as well as its footprint would be much smaller and hence the environmental and social impacts (and the associated costs) would also be less than the first option. The only disadvantage of the 765kV system is that the Country lacks any prior experience of installing and operating such a system. Finally, on the basis of lesser cost and smaller footprint, the 765kV system has been selected for the DTL. For Mansehra Grid Station (circuit breakers and switchgears), air insulated (AIS), gas insulated (GIS), and hybrid models are three possible alternatives. All substation configurations have pros and cons. Industrial practice suggests that when space is available, AIS is the usual choice, on the basis of lesser costs of equipment; while in urban settings where land is scarce and expensive, GIS is preferred. In the case of Mansehra, where the setting is rural and space is available, the AIS configuration has been chosen. AIS also allows for more flexibility in view of planned future expansion. National Transmission & Despatch Company (NTDC) ES-2 Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Dasu Transmission Line Project Project Overview The proposed 765 kV Dasu TL Project, which will evacuate power generated from DHP and other future hydropower plants, comprises a double circuit transmission line from Dasu to Mansehra then to Islamabad via Pattan, Besham, Thakot and Mansehra and two Grid Stations one in Mansehra and the last one is in Islamabad West. The total length of the transmission line is about 250 km. See Figure ES.1 for the DTL alignment. The proposed transmission line requires about 674 towers, in which 217 will be angle or tension towers and remaining 457 will be suspension or tangent towers. The average size of each tower footing will be 20m x 20m (400 square meters). Typically, four concrete foundations about 3-6 m depth will be constructed for each tower. The average height of each tower will be about 83 m. The right of way (RoW) of the transmission line will be 80m wide. On average about 200 m long access track will be used for each tower during the construction phase. Mansehra GS, a 765/500 kV AIS grid station will be constructed on 158 acres of land at Sawan Maira village. The grid station will house bay and other substation equipment, such as, transformers, circuit breakers, feeder bay, reactors, isolators, bus bars, wave trapper, loop-in-out lines, and telecommunication mast. It will also have control building to house protective relays, control devices, battery banks for primary control power, and remote monitoring equipment and residential colony for the operation staffs and