Impact of Hydropower Projects on Economic Growth of AJK.

According to official estimates, territory of Azad Jammu & Kashmir has a potential to generate about 4600 MW of hydroelectricity, the cheapest source of energy. Total deficit in energy Pakistan is facing these days is about 5000 MW. So, only AJK can fulfill more than 90% of deficit of now demanded energy for entire country. Beside this direct and explicit advantage of hydropower projects to power sector, these projects may be extremely useful in improving many economic and social indicators at local and national level. Many socioeconomic indicators reveal that Azad Kashmir is there is huge gap in development level of AJK and National level. Development of power sector is extremely important to fill this gap. In this paper, we analyze effect of possible implementation of these projects on various economic and social sectors at local and national level. We discuss the obstacles in implementation of projects and recommendations are given at the end.