Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) Chairman Zafar Mehmood on Friday reviewed the construction work on 969 MW-Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project (NJHP). According to the WAPDA spokesman, the meeting reviewed in detail the construction work at all three sites of the project. In view of the current progress on the project, a thorough appraisal was carried out on the time lines for completion of the project.
The WAPDA chairman urged the contractor to deploy maximum resources for completion of the Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project in line with the agreed time lines. Also keeping in view the latest directions of the prime minister conveyed to the WAPDA chairman, low-cost hydel electricity needs to be added to the national grid to help the county overcome electricity shortages.
The chairman emphasised upon the contractor to invest more in deployment of machinery and human resources to meet the agreed time lines for completion of the project. He said the loan agreement amounting to US $576 million was likely to be finalised next week to achieve financial close of the project.
The NJHP chief executive officer briefed the meeting about the progress on the dam and de-sander, tunnel excavation, power house, transformers hall and the switch yard. He said steel lining of the tunnels in the critical river-crossing area was progressing at a good pace, while concrete lining of the tunnels was also continuing. He apprised the meeting that subsequent to achieving most of the critical targets, the construction work on all three sites of the project was moving ahead satisfactorily. The overall progress on the project stood at about 83.5 per cent, he further said.
It is pertinent to mention that Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Company - a subsidiary of WAPDA - is constructing a world class underground power generation facility. The project envisages 90 per cent construction work under high mountainous over burden and only 10 per cent above the ground.
As per agreed time lines by the contractor, the first generating unit of the project is expected to be completed in July 2017, whereas the remaining three units will come on line one by one till the end of December 2017. On its completion, the project will contribute 5.15 billion units of low-cost and environment-friendly electricity to the system each year.
The meeting was attended by WAPDA Member (Water) Muhammad Shoaib Iqbal, NJHP Chief Executive Officer Engineer Muhammad Zubair, WAPDA General Manager (Central Contract Cell) Nasir Hanif, NJHP Project Director Nayyar Alauddin and NJC (Consultants) Project Manager William B Dobbs and CGGC (Contractor) Project Manager Hu Quanguang. The consultants and the contractor made a detailed presentation on the construction activities of the project, the problems being faced by them and their future plan of action for completion of the project.