The Kalabagh Dam (KBD) is proposed to be located on the River Indus at about 120 miles downstream of Tarbela Dam, 92 miles downstream the confluence of Kabul and Indus Rivers and 16 miles upstream of the existing Jinnah Barrage. The site is a narrow and deep channel extending over 5-mile distance where the river is about 1,300 feet wide.

According to the PC-II of the Project "KBD was initiated by GOP in 1953, and until 1973, the project was basically considered as a storage project for meeting the irrigation needs, and consequently, rapid increases in the cost of energy have greatly enhanced the priority of KBD as a power project".

The project planning report, circulated in March 84, tried to establish the technical and economic feasibility of the project, and the detailed designs/tender documents, commenced in March 84, and were completed by December 1985.

The feasibility study and documentation have cost the GOP around one billion rupees so far.

According to one of WAPDA’s latest briefs on the KBD Project, the dam and its objectives are described in the following words:

"It is expected to be a 260 ft high structure and would create a reservoir 6.1 million acres feet (MAF) of usable storage. The annual generation of energy would amount to about 11,200 GWh, generated by hydro power plant of 2400 MW capacity. This capacity may ultimately be increased to 3600 MW, making KBD one of the largest hydro generation dams in Asia. The total project cost covering civil and power facilities, as estimated by the consultants at June 1987 prices, will be about US $ 5.153 billion, including the cost of interest during construction, customs duties, taxes and price contingencies"

Another WAPDA release "WAPDA Projects in Brief" of January 1986, describes the project as:
"Kalabagh Dam is a multipurpose project to be built across the River Indus. Basically, it is a power project which aims at accelerating the tempo of economic development in Pakistan".

Briefly, in WAPDA’s terms, the proposed KBD has the following aims:

1. To generate large amounts of low cost hydro electric power near major load centers, and supply the existing grid for meeting the growing power demand of agriculture, industrial and domestic consumers. In addition, it will increase the energy output of the existing Tarbela scheme by permitting the conjunctive operation of the two reservoirs.
2. To provide additional storage on the Indus River, and thus reduce the exiting system shortfalls in irrigation requirements.
3. To provide additional regulation on the River Indus, and thus provide better system control and management for supplying assured, adequate and timely irrigation water for crops.
4. To compensate for the storage loss due to the silting up of exiting reservoirs till such time that their substitutes, (presently planned) are actually available.
5. To eliminate and control the flood peaks in the River Indus so as to minimize flood hazards downstream.
6. To increase Pakistan’s capability to manage its water distribution and power generation systems through the conjunctive operation of Tarbela and KBD reservoir

It is believed by WAPDA that " the conjunctive operation of Kalabagh Dam will enhance Tarbela’s generation capacity to 336 million units of energy and 600 MW of peaking power. Which will increase the share of hydel power on the national grid, thus controlling the overall cost of power generation, alongwith the reduction in thermal generation to result in savings in fuel import".