Contract inked for rehabilitating Warsak hydel power station

LAHORE: The Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) awarded the contract of Civil Works worth Rs.936.29million through an international competitive bidding for second rehabilitation of Warsak Hydroelectric Power Station to Technicon Enterprises, says a press release.

WAPDA is executing Second Rehabilitation Project of Warsak Hydel Power Station to regain its generation capacity, which has decreased to 193 MW from 243 MW due to aging factor of the electro-mechanical equipment. The contract was signed at a ceremony here at Wapda House. WAPDA has been vigorously implementing a least-cost energy generation plan to add low-priced hydel electricity to the system. In addition to constructing new projects, WAPDA has also been rehabilitating and upgrading its aging hydel power stations, including the Warsak, under the plan. The rehabilitation works are planned to be carried out with an approved PC-I cost of Rs.22.25 billion with the objective to overcome the aging problems, regain the capacity loss of 50 MWwith reliable annual energy generation of 1.14 billion units, upgrade and modernize the old system and achieve another life cycle of 30 to 40 years. It is pertinent to mention that Warsak is the first ever-main hydropower project executed in Pakistan after independence. The first phase of the Warsak Dam and Hydel PowerStation was completed in 1960-61 consisting of the dam, irrigation tunnels, four generating units with cumulative capacity of 160 MW, switchyard and transmission line. In the second phase, two more generating units of about 83 MW were added in 1980-81 to raise the installed capacity of the hydel power station to 243 MW. The first rehabilitation was carried out during 1996-2006 to stabilize civil structure and recover lost generation of about 70 MW. General Manager (Hydel) Development Nadeem Iqbal and Chief Executive Officer Iqbal Yunas signed the contract on behalf of WAPDA and Technicon Enterprises respectively. WAPDA Member (Power) Jamil Akhtar and other senior officers of WAPDA were also present.