Golen Gol project to usher in era of uplift in Chitral: Wapda chief

CHITRAL: Wapda Chairman Lieutenant General (retd) Muzammil Hussain on Wednesday said the Golen Gol Hydropower Project would usher in a new era of progress and prosperity in Chitral.

The Chitral town has started receiving much-needed electricity from the Golen Gol project on trial basis. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will formally inaugurate the project during the first week of February.

"Only the first unit of 36 mw put into operation today which will provide electricity three times more than needs of Chitral City. Surplus energy will be evacuated to the national grid," said the Wapda chairman during the visit of the project.

He congratulated the project authorities of Wapda, the consultants and the contractors for achieving the landmark. Muzammil Hussain expressed the hope that Golen Gol Hydropower Project would usher in a new era of progress and prosperity in Chitral, besides stabilising the economy by providing low-cost and environment-friendly electricity to the national grid.

The project has been constructed on Golen Gol - a tributary of Mastuj River - near Chitral. The installed generation capacity of the project is 108 MW with three generating units - each of them having a capacity of 36 MW. The first unit has been completed, while the second and the third unit will be commissioned in March and May 2018 respectively. The project will provide 436 million units of electricity to the National Grid every year. Benefits of the project have been estimated at Rs.3.7 billion per annum.