Suki-Kinari power project to ease life of local people

ISLAMABAD: The Suki Kinari Hydro-power project will help avert floods, irrigate large areas of farmland, produce 2.86 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year and provide local residents with 140 million cubic meters of drinking water per year.

China Gezhouba Group Company (CGGC) started working on it in December 2016, and will be completed by 2022. It will go a long way easing the life of the local people, reports Gwadar Pro app media network.

The Suki Kinari project in KPK is one of the largest projects falling under the portfolio of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), also being the largest private sector project in Pakistan.

The project is part of the Early Harvest projects of CPEC and is expected to add a sizable 870 MW to the power sector of Pakistan.

The estimated cost of the project is USD 1.9 billion, expected to generate a massive power of 3.081 billion MW. It is also estimated that the project will serve as an employment gateway for more than 3000 people.

About 6,000 jobs will be created for Pakistan during the peak period of construction.

Cement, reinforcement, aggregate, diesel, explosive required by the construction of SKHPP purchased from Pakistan market had promoted local trade. 7 bridges have been assembled on Kunhar River from Nalan to Paras; these bridges would be gifts for society welfare.

It may be mentioned here that major hydropower projects in Pakistan include the Neelum-Jhelum project, Dasu project and Suki Kinari project.

The Kunhar River starts off and passes through the entire distance to end in Pakistani land which makes certain hundred percent constant run through venture life.

The potential for energy generation from Kunhar River was first identified around 1960. In 1959, US consultants were engaged by WAPDA to study this potential.

In January 1960, they issued a report entitled “Kunhar River Project-Kaghan Valley.” More and more studies were carried out in 1984 and 1995 to optimize the energy latent of the river.

These studies recognized a cycle of prospective spots by the side of the river from where the power could be created by flow the water power through run-of-the-river hydro ventures.

These Studies recommended possible sites for these ventures at Batakundi, Naran, Suki Kinari, Balakot and Patrind.

Chinese engineer said that the Run-of-the-river projects envisage that the water is drawn from the river, taken to the turbines in a Powerhouse located downstream through tunnel and after running the turbines and producing energy the water is again diverted back to the river.

This water is now again available to be used to produce energy through yet another similar set up downstream. This is called cascading.