Gomal Zam Dam: Project to be fully commissioned by January

ISLAMABAD:

The Gomal Zam Dam, which is being constructed at Khajuri Kach on the Gomal river in South Waziristan, will be fully commissioned in January next year, say officials.

Official sources told the APP here that the dam will store 1.14 million acre feet (MAF) of water, which will irrigate 163,000 acres of land, besides helping mitigate flood risks. In addition, the project – which has a power generation capacity of 17.4 megawatts (MW) – will also contribute 91 million units of electricity annually to the national grid.

This quantity of electricity is sufficient to power about 25,000 households in the area, the officials added. They said that the power generated will be transmitted from the dam to the Tank grid station through a 132 kilovolt double circuit line.

The work on the transmission line is being executed by the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) at an estimated cost of Rs353 million, out of which Rs303 million have already been delivered to the Pesco Cheif Executive Officer, the officials said. 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 15^th, 2012.