ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has ordered quick completion of two major hydropower projects that will add about 2,380 megawatts of electricity to the national grid before June next year.

Through two letters, the federal government has asked Wapda and the management of Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project (NJHP) to ensure effective monitoring of the Tarbela-IV Extension Project and the NJHP for their completion before the deadline.

Informed sources said the chief executive officer of the 969MW NJHP, Muhammad Zubair, was directed to shift the project’s headquarters from Islamabad to its site at Muzaffarabad for on-site monitoring of the work.

The project management was asked not to leave Muzaffarabad for Islamabad unless called by the federal government or without prior approval of the ministry of water and power in case of pressing requirement. The water and power secretary was told to submit fortnightly reports about the two projects to the Prime Minister Secretariat.

Prime minister wants swift supply of 2,380MW to national grid

Wapda Chairman Zafar Mahmood was asked to visit the sites of NJHP and the 1,410MW Tarbela-IV on a weekly basis and report updates to the prime minister.

“The objective is to complete before June 2017 the two projects considered crucial to Prime Minister Sharif’s target to end loadshedding before next general elections,” said an insider.

The sources said these decisions were taken at a meeting presided over by the prime minister earlier this week and attended by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and the prime minister’s principal secretary, Fawad Hassan. Secretary water and power Muhammad Younas Dagha was also called ahead of the meeting held in the absence of Wapda chairman and NJHP’s chief executive officer.

According to the sources, Mr Sharif desired he be regularly updated on the two projects and that he would like to personally monitor the progress. The prime minister was informed that about 9,100MW of power generation capacity would be added to the system by the winter of 2017.

Shortage of funds

It was reported that the Neelum-Jhelum project had faced delays in the past because of shortage of funds. With outstanding dues of Rs15-20bn, the contractor could not have been expected to ensure smooth implementation. However, now that financing has been lined up, the project is already reported to have achieved about 80 per cent progress.

The project will produce 5.15bn units of electricity.

Wapda was confident to get the first generating unit of the project ready by mid-2017, with rest of the three units expected to be completed in phases by Dec 2017.

The Tarbela extension (T4) project has also been targeted to be completed by June 2017. Originally, it was estimated to cost $928 million, but the estimate has been revised downwards to $651m.

The existing power house at Tarbela, completed in 1974, has a total generation capacity of 3,478MW. This is expected to go up to 4,888MW on completion of T4 in June 2017 and further to about 6,200MW by June 2018.

The project is being constructed at Tunnel 4 of the dam, which was originally intended for irrigation, but was later taken up for power generation as the demand for electricity increased. The country would get 3,840GWh every year from T4 and it would be available for power supply during peak demand months.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2016