Pak: Groundbreaking of Neelum-Jhelum hydroelectric project soon

Lahore: The groundbreaking of 969-MW Neelum-Jhelum hydroelectric project will be performed within this week, whereas work on land acquisition for the project has already been completed.

This was stated by Federal Minister for Water and Power Tariq Hamid while presiding over a meeting here at Wapda House to review pace of work on the five mega water reservoirs, particularly Diamer-Basha Dam, announced by the President Pervez Musharraf and various other hydropower projects.

Wapda, Chairman, Shakil Durrani, Member (Water) Muhammad Mushtaq Chaudhry, General Managers concerned and the consultants of the projects attended the meeting.

Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said that Neelum-Jhelum Hydroelectric project is of immense importance as the execution of this project would not only establish water rights of Pakistan over the River Neelum but also improve hydel ratio in over all power generation in the country. The project on its completion, would contribute about 5,150-MW hour electricity annually to the national grid, he added.

The Minister said that as many as 11 projects with an accumulative generation capacity of more than 12,000 MW including Bunji (5,400 MW), Dasu (4,000 MW), Kohala (1,100 MW), Spatgah and Palas Valley (1,230 MW) would be available by 2009 for initiating construction work, as feasibility of these projects are being carried out vigorously.

The Minister expressed the hope that detailed engineering designs of Diamer-Basha Dam would be completed by couple of months followed by preparation of the tender documents and invitation of bids for construction of the project. He said the construction work on Diamer-Basha Dam is expected to start in 2009 after the award of contract through international competitive bidding. He said that Diamer-Basha Dam would generate 4,500 MW electricity besides storing water for irrigation purpose.

The Minister said that Water and Power Ministry, in consultation with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources and the Government of

Sindh, has finalised a strategy for maximum utilisation of Thar Coal reserves for power generation in the days to come. He revealed that initially WAPDA has been tasked to immediately take up the projects to generate 1,000 MW electricity from Thar Coal while the coal projects of 2,000 MW would be executed in private sector.