Punjab gets loyalty for Ghazi-Barotha hydel project

Lahore: The Punjab government finally succeeded in convincing the federal government for its rightful royalty on Ghazi-Barotha Hydropower project that was denied by the Musharraf-led government for four years.

Ghazi Barotha is an engineering project that was started during the second Nawaz era. It produces 1450-megawatt electricity round the year through diversion of Tarbela overflow. The water obtained from Tarbela is released in the original course of River Indus at Barotha where a suitable fall was available for power generation. The previous regime always incorporated the Ghazi Barotha royalty in the budget estimates but never succeeded in obtaining a single penny in this regard.

It goes to the credit of Punjab Chief Minister and democratically-elected government that the issue has finally been resolved. It would net Punjab government an additional income of Rs4-5 billion annually.

It is the second biggest hydropower project of the country and is unique in the sense that the available water was prudently utilised to produce much needed low-cost electricity. Another salient feature of the project is that it is be the first hydropower project of the country that will not be dependent on the reservoir level of a dam.

Pakistan currently produces hydel electricity from Tarbela and Mangla. The optimum generation capacity at Tarbela is 3450- megawatt while 1000-megawatt electricity is generated from Mangla.

The electricity generation, however, is dependent on the level of water in these reservoirs. As the reservoir level depletes the electricity generation capacity also reduces. When these dams reach dead level (which they usually do in winter) the electricity generation is totally stopped.

This is not be the case as far as Ghazi Barotha Hydro Project is concerned. Its generators continue to produce optimum electricity irrespective of the level of the dam. The principle used was simple.

When the water is released from Tarbela for irrigation purposes it goes in to the Indus River. This water is then regulated at different barrages built on the river course. Engineers and international experts found a site at Barotha seven kilometer from Tarbela that was at a very high altitude below, which was the normal course of river Indus. All of them agreed that substantial electricity could be generated if somehow the overflow of Tarbela could be brought at this point and used for electricity generation. The water after fall could then be diverted in the main river. The GBHP was built on this concept. The 52 kilometer long canal is made of concrete and will not be used for irrigation purposes. It has been named a power canal.

After the water availability through this canal was assured the engineers both local and foreign worked hard to take maximum advantage of this water. It was found that the water was enough to run four generators of 290-megawatt capacity each. This meant that the electricity that could be generated from the project would be around 1160 megawatt. Engineering genius was again applied and another generator of 290 megawatt was planned so that the generation could go up to 1450 megawatt.

The water for the fifth generating unit was arranged in an ingenious way. It was found that the project has two sites near its power generating area one in the north and another in the south where water ponds could be built. The additional water in these ponds is stored and used for power generation at peak demand.

The project cost is $2.2 billion out of which WAPDA provided almost 50 per cent equity. Rest of the financing has been provided by Asian Development Bank ($300 million), World Bank ($350 million), Germany ($129 million), Japan ($291 million), Britain ($60 million and Islamic Development Bank (@4 million). It was delayed during military rule but the project cost remained within the original estimates.