NJHPP Chief Executive Officer Lieutenant General (R) Zubair said that 72 percent work on the main dam had also been completed while work on a 19 kilometre tunnel was being carried out carefully. PHOTO: FILE
NJHPP Chief Executive Officer Lieutenant General (R) Zubair said that some of the necessary equipment had already reached Islamabad airport and the Karachi port. However, the concerned department has not yet cleared it despite exemption, he added.
He said the finance ministry has approved Rs14 billion for the project and expressed hope that it would be released in a couple of days. Zubair said that 61 percent work has already been completed on the project and all efforts were being made to complete it before its scheduled time (2016) as directed by the prime minister.
He said that out of four power transformers, two had already been imported and are at the Karachi port. He said that the project would cost Rs274 billion and an amount of Rs114 billion had been spent so far including Rs33 billion collected as Neelum Jhelum surcharge.
To a question, Zubair expressed hope that the first power unit of 242 ME would start generation by December 2015 but is subject to availability of funds coming in a timely manner.
He said that 72 percent work on the main dam had also been completed while work on a 19 kilometre tunnel was being carried out carefully.
He informed that the NJHPP would contribute 5.15 billion units of cheap electricity to the national grid. The annual benefits from the project have been estimated at Rs45 billion.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 7th, 2014.
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