The government has maintained that 78 percent work of 969 MW Neelum Jhelum Hydro Power Project Phase-II has been completed and the project is expected to be completed by March 2020 to add power to the system. The total cost of PC-1 is Rs 21.697 billion and so far Rs 16 billion expenditure has been incurred, informed officials of Ministry of Energy to a meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Power held on Tuesday (January 21, 2020).

A copy of the presentation revealed that evacuation of power has been delayed from 969MW NJHP for various reasons including: (i) delay in issuance of NOC from forest department, AJK; (ii) exorbitant compensation demands of local inhabitants; (iii) difficult and hilly terrain; (IV) and transmission line passes through AJK area of dense forests.

Additionally, the government stated that highly unstable weather conditions and extreme right of ways, especially in AJK, are also responsible for the delay. The meeting was informed about the progress of phase-II.

The meeting was also informed that contract for evacuation of power from 729MW Karot Hydro Power Project was awarded on December 26, 2019 and the project has been included in Neelum Jhelum Hydro Power Project and commencement on site has been done on January 14, 2020.

The reasons for delay in evacuation of power from 147MW Patrind Hydro Poser Project, according to the government, are: (i) transmission line passes through AJK and KPK , which poses serious right of way issue as well as non-cooperation by local administration, exorbitant demand of the land owners and forest NOC issues as the line passes through Batrasi forest.

The award price is Rs 78.643 billion and completion target is of June 2020 with scope of work in/out of 500kV D/C transmission line from Neelum Jhelum Hydro Power Project to Gakkhar at Karrot Hydro Power Project (2.5 km).

The meeting was held to take briefing from the officials of Ministry of Power regarding construction of 500/220kV transmission lines to evacuate electricity from newly constructed hydro power projects in the country during 2010-19 along with complete details of project-wise award of contract with total number of companies participated in the bidding as well as initial cost and completion date and final cost and actual date of completion.