Neelum-Jhelum project becomes functional today

ISLAMABAD: At last the much awaited day has come when the most strategic and state-of-art project of its own kind -- Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project will start generating 242MW electricity.

The project will be fully functional by June-July and inject 969MW electricity in the national grid. The project with capacity of 969MW electricity will generate 5150Gegawatt per hour at the levelised tariff of 13.50 per unit for 30 years. The annual benefits of the project have been estimated at Rs55 billion.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will witness the inauguration ceremony of the project.

Seeing is believing! Neelum-Jhelum Hydro Power Project is a world class hydro power facility executed under the deep mountains where geology is neither predictable nor readable. Never in Pakistan has such a complex project, which is of its own kind and is being branded as the new wonder of Pakistan because 10 percent of the project meaning by that dam is on surface and 90 percent is underground with water-way system comprising 52km tunnels. Besides, transformer hall and powerhouse is also underground. Kishenganga of 330MW has been erected by India on the same tributary of Neelum river which is termed in India Ganga tributary.

The Neelum-Jehlum project has been completed on Neelum river in AJK. As the water which was destined to reach Pakistan has been diverted in the wake of Kishenganga project by India therefore 10 percent water flows will be affected and owing to this very reason the project will produce electricity 500MW less from 969MW on an average.

The project witnessed many upheavals on its way to completion and 86 percent of the project got completed without financial closure. The cost of the project has been revised for five times. Its cost started from Rs80 billion and ended up at Rs500.343 billion.

The long history of the project reveals that Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) in 2002 approved the project at the cost of Rs84.502 billion. The cost of the project scaled up to Rs277.502 billion which the ECNEC approved in 2012 and then its cost again surged to Rs404.331 billion in 2015. And after that it was again hiked to Rs500.343 billion.

In 2002, the cost of the project was Rs84 billion but after the 2005 earthquake, the project’s design had to be modified keeping in view the fault lines passing through the project site and the scope of the project also increased. Furthermore, due to the rising value of dollar the cost of the project had escalated to over Rs277 billion. And then the cost of project was revised upward by 86 percent to Rs404 billion mainly because of the inclusion of duties, taxes which further increased up to Rs500.343 billion because of the inclusion of IDC (interests during cost) till completion of the project and the cost of the consultant.

Though the credit goes to many personalities in getting the project completed, but there is one man--- Lt Gen Muhammad Zubair (retd) who lifted the project from scratches to 86 percent without any financial closure. He is the man who played pivotal role during hard time when no donor agencies was ready to provide funding for the project.

Former Wapda chairmen, Shakeel Durrani and Zafar Mehmood also played very important roles in materialising the project.