French funded: Refurbished power plant to supply 22MW by Sept

ISLAMABAD:

The country’s oldest hydro power plant, Jabban, located on Swat canal in Malakand Division was inaugurated on Tuesday after it stopped production owing to a fire incident in 2006.

The plant has been refurbished with the help of the government of France after the signing of a soft loan agreement of Rs3.5 billion in 2010.

The project included rehabilitating the plant and to build Pakistan’s capacities in the hydropower sector.

With the participation of engineers from Wapda and Nespak, the infrastructure was rehabilitated and the capacity increased from 19 MW to 22 MW. During the construction phase, 200 people were employed at the work site, directly benefitting the local population of Malakand. After the rehabilitation is entirely complete, the plant will employ 50 workers and will provide electricity to more than 240,000 people. The plant is expected to run on full capacity by September 2013.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2013.