A fresh collapse at the under-construction Tunnel-5 of Pakistan's 1,530MW Tarbela Dam 5th Extension Hydropower Project has halted construction work. The incident occurred on Monday, with a protective bund giving way, causing a sudden surge of water from the dam's reservoir. This is the second major incident at the Tarbela-5 project since 2025. An independent inquiry committee report, accessed by Pakistani newspaper Dawn, identified unauthorized changes to the cofferdam design and contractual breaches as the main causes of the earlier collapse in July this year. The report states that these breaches involved all three stakeholders - the contractor, the engineer, and the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA). The committee found that WAPDA approved a change to the cofferdam design when construction was nearing completion, without examining its contractual validity or technical shortcomings. The inquiry also revealed irregular payments for temporary work, weakening the government's right to seek compensation from the contractor following the collapse. The project, involving loans from the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, is now expected to be completed by the end of June 2028, with an estimated cost escalation of over 285%.