PM opens K-P hydropower project

Khan Khwar project in Bisham district expected to add 72MW to the national grid.


Our Correspondent July 15, 2012

ISLAMABAD:


Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf inaugurated on Saturday the Khan Khwar hydropower project in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Bisham district.


In his address at the ceremony, the premier said that upon its completion the project would add 72MW to the national grid.

“(Power) generation through hydropower projects is our main focus in order to produce low-cost, environment-friendly electricity,” he added.

Talking about the government’s course of action to resolve the energy crisis, PM Ashraf said all hydropower projects, including Neelum, Jehlum, Dober, Kohal and Dasu, will be initiated soon while work on the Thar coal project had already started.

The premier was also given a detailed briefing on the project by the project’s head. He was informed that the Khan Khwar project, part of the Water and Power Development Authority’s (Wapda) energy generation plan, had been constructed at the Indus River’s right bank rivulet in the Shangla district. It had been completed at a cost of Rs11 billion, with the Islamic Development Bank contributing Rs5 billion as financial assistance.

The Khan Khwar project consists of a 46-metre high and 112-metre wide dam, a five-kilometre tunnel, a power house and a switchyard. It has been connected to the national grid via a 220/132kV transmission line.

Responding to demands presented by Wapda Chairman Shakil Durrani, Prime Minister Ashraf sanctioned a grid station, cadet college and passport office at Bisham and announced an extra month’s salary for the authority’s employees working on the project.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2012.

 

COMMENTS (9)

FP | 11 years ago | Reply

@just_someone: Could not agree anymore.

just_someone | 11 years ago | Reply

@FP: Its difficult to say who initiated the project. Hydropower project take at least a decade from identification from the site to actual results in terms of power and mostly in a country like pakistani they take decades from even initial feasibility reports. A lot of projects currently being undertaken were first identified by WAPDA engineers in the 70s. Mush's govt went ahead with a lot of old project recommendations and started the process of initial review and engineering design, checking of these designs, offering of tenders of all kinds, etc. I think most of the physical construction was done under this regime.

Here is the main issue of why successive governments have not undertaken long-term beneficial projects. We care about who did it rather than it was done. All pakistani politicnas care about what they can do that will finish in a couple of years so they can inaugurate it rather than what projects, however long they take, should be undertaken for the betterment of the country.

To this government's credit, a lot of projects have been initiated by this Govt that are in feasibility/engineering/design phase but which will be completed in a decade so they kinda deserve some credit for this (Im not a fan of this Govt at all, actually I hate all politicians but I am an ardent supporter of democracy and letting democracy develop and mould itself).

VIEW MORE COMMENTS
Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ