LAHORE, Aug 5: The first power unit of Ghazi Barotha Hydropower Project (GBHP) is expected to be formally inaugurated by the middle of this month.

Designed to meet peak-hour power shortage, Ghazi Barotha is a 1450MW project, which uses the head available in the Indus between Tarbela Dam and its confluence with Haro river.

The project has three main components; a barrage, a power channel and a power complex.

The barrage, located seven kilometres downstream Tarbela, is meant to re-regulate the daily discharge of water into power channel. The concrete-lined power channel is designed to carry 56,500 cusecs water from the barrage to the complex. The channel is 52km long with a bed slope of 1 to 9600 metres, depth of 9 metres, a base of 58.4 metres and a velocity of 2.33 metres per second.

Thirty-four road bridges, including a two-lane bridge for the Grand Trunk (GT) road, 12 pedestrian bridges, a railway bridge and 52 cross-drainage structures have been built as part of the project. Four more units of 290mw would be commissioned.