HARIPUR, Jan 22: The power channel of Ghazi Barotha hydel power project has been closed for 25 days and the generation suspended to examine the damages which purportedly occurred in its bed and sides at certain points, sources told Dawn here on Thursday.

The channel was closed on Jan 18, 2004, on the directive of the authorities to determine whether the damages detected were due to design fault or use of substandard material, the sources said.

The 54-km-long and 40-ft-wide power channel was completed at a cost of $2 billion by a consortium of national and multinational companies in July 2003, and the power generation was started in August.

When water was released in the power channel, certain damages were detected in its bed and sides at some points. The Ghazi Barotha contractors, mainly headed by an Italian firm, Impregelo, attributed the damages to the design fault and held the Pakistan Hydro Consultants (PHC) responsible for it, while Wapda blamed the contractors for using substandard material.

To fix the responsibility, the consortium, Wapda and the PHC agreed to jointly get the affected points examined by their experts after closing the channel temporarily. Water supply to the power house has been suspended till Feb 15 and four power generation units were closed.