Neelum-Jhelum project hits snag as its CEO resigns

ISLAMABAD: The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Neelum-Jhelum project has resigned, and it is likely that the project may face more delays, and electricity deficit would hit the people since the country may not get 969-MW electricity on time.
This ugly development has given birth to the huge disquiet not only among Wapda officials but also among the workers involved in the construction of the project. He managed to show substantial progress on the project despite the government’s failure to come up with financial closure.
Lieutenant-General (R) Muhammad Zubair joined the project in September 2010 when it was just 15 percent complete and a meager amount of Rs16 billion had been spent on the project thus far. From September 2010 onwards, he managed to keep the contractor of the project on his toes despite the fact that financial supplies to the project sometimes got chocked, but he did not allow financial constraints to put hindrances in the construction activities.
The construction activities, however, slowed down off and on, but every time he tactfully kept the Chinese contractor to continue the construction activities at a certain pace. Mr Zubair has also got a remarkable feather in his cap of repairing the Sukkur Barrage within a short span of 90 days and since then it is performing well, even though flood has been hitting every year for the last eight years.
However, he tendered his resignation and will not be available anymore from November 4, 2015. Officials close to him told The News that Mr Zabair felt insulted when he saw the advertisement in the national dailies seeking the candidate for the post of the chief executive officer of the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Company. “This forced him to step down as the CEO because he thought that the government of the day has no confidence in his performance.”
When contacted, Mr Zubair confirmed the development but offered no comments when asked about the core reason of tendering the resignation particularly at a time when the project had been 74 percent complete and just 26 percent remained.
A Wapda spokesman also confirmed that Lt.-General (R) Muhammad Zubair resigned, but the authorities had not so far accepted the resignation. “They want him to continue as the CEO.”However, the officials who are privy to the development disclosed if the new CEO is selected with the age limit of 58 years and a qualification of BSc Engineering along with an MBA degree, where will General Zubair stand. “The age of Mr Zubair is 66 years meaning that Mr Zubair has been technically knocked out as he does not meet the condition of age limit.”
Hassan Nasir Jami, the additional secretary of the Ministry of Water and Power, who deals with the hydropower projects and is one of the members of the board of directors of the Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project, said that he had not seen the resignation of Mr Zubair.
However, he learnt about this development when he saw a letter written by the workers of the project asking the top authorities not to accept the resignation of Mr Zubair at any cost as he was part and parcel of the project. Jami said this was how he came to know that Mr Zubair had resigned.
However, Jami said that in the light of the Prime Minister’s general orders for selecting the CEO of the companies through a transparent process, Wapda’s top management had given the advertisement seeking CEOs for the Diamer-Bhasha Hydropower Company, the Dasu Hydropower Company and the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Company.
To a question he said that the original cost of the project was Rs80 billion, but when the catastrophic earthquake jolted the northern areas and the AJK in November 2005, the specifications of the project were entirely changed owing to which its cost got revised to Rs274 billion, but in the revised cost, the component of Interests During Cost (IDC) was not included. Now the said component had been included owing to which its cost had jacked up to a whopping Rs414 billion.
He said that the taxes, duties and IDC had now been included in the cost of the project.However, the officials said that during the five years of Mr Zubair, the project witnessed 74 percent progress. The dam’s site got completed by 74 percent and the powerhouse complex 84 percent. The tunnel of 900 meters beneath the bed of the Jhelum River, which was an uphill task, had been successfully excavated four months back.