Left tunnel of Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project connected

LAHORE: The left headrace tunnel of the 969MW Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project (NJHP) has been successfully connected under River Jhelum, a spokesman of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) said on Thursday.

In the first week of January 2016, the right headrace tunnel of the project was connected in the river cross section, the spokesman added. The NJHP authorities arranged a ceremony in the left headrace tunnel at the connectivity site, where Wapda Chairman Zafar Mahmood connected the two sections of the left headrace tunnel. Wapda Member (Finance) Anwar-ul-Haq, NJHP CEO Lieutenant General (retd) Muhammad Zubair and representatives of the project contractor and consultants were also present.

Wapda chairman appreciated the commitment and professional expertise of the project authorities, the contractor and the consultants for achieving this milestone. Expressing satisfaction over the pace of the construction work, he said that Wapda was confident the first generating unit of the project would be completed in mid 2017 and rest of the three units in a phased manner by December 2017.

In a briefing to the media at the project site, the chairman said NJHP was 78 percent complete. Member (finance) also assured the media persons of the financial arrangements for the project and said the issues relating to the availability of funds for completion of the project have almost been resolved.

He said that about Rs250 billion have so far been spent on the project. NJHP CEO apprised the media of the progress on various components of the project. He said that the redesigned composite dam and the spillway were 74 percent and 100 percent complete respectively. About 60.5 out of 68 kilometres long tunnels (88 percent) have so far been excavated.

The power house and the switchyard are expected to be completed in November this year, he added.

It is pertinent to mention that run-of-the-river NJHP is being constructed in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The project, on its completion, will contribute 5.15 billion units of low-cost and environment friendly electricity to the national grid.