Gilgit lights up after five-day blackout

Fissures in reservoir of Naltar power plant repaired.

GILGIT:

After a complete five-day blackout, power in Gilgit was finally restored late Tuesday after experts repaired fissures that had caused water to leak from the reservoir of Naltar power plant which supplies electricity to the capital city of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B).

For residents, however, power restoration means they will have the luxury of about five hours of electricity out of 24 hours. A number of residents had suffered a total communication breakdown since they were not able to recharge their mobiles.

Repairs was completed after experts called in by the government from Lahore, spent more than three days in the freezing cold digging and filling chemical substance in the fissures to seal them. Locals were apprehensive the reservoir would burst, submerging families living downstream. As a consequence, they had cut off water supply to the reservoir, which is spread over 18 kanals of land in Naltar, about 45 kilometres from Gilgit. According to sources, the reservoir which had been drained for maintenance, was refilled on Tuesday.

The 18-megawatt hydel power project was built in 2008 during former president Pervez Musharraf’s government. It is the largest power project in G-B, supplying power to almost 90 per cent of the population.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2012.