July 27, 2008	Sunday	Rajab 23, 1429

PESHAWAR, July 26: The newly built Malakand-III Power Complex is expected to start commercial power generation by next month, opening another source of earning for the cash-strapped Frontier government.

All the three units, each having the capacity of generating 27.2MW electricity, were passing through different tests and the process would be completed by next month, an official told Dawn here on Saturday.

The new power complex is located on Upper Swat Canal system near Daragai area of Malakand and it is the first mega hydel sector project to be completed by the provincial government through its own resources.

Built by a Chinese company, the project will generate

81MW cheap electricity besides irrigating more than 20,000 acres of barren land of Palai, Baizu, Kharki, Machai, Wartair and Dobandi areas of the Malakand district.

The first generating unit of the power complex had successfully gone through all reliability tests last month, whereas the other two units were in the process, the official adds.

After the completion of tests the power complex will be handed over to another foreign contractor, the provincial government had hired for overall operations, the official says.

The project, launched in 2001, had been centre of controversies, as at the beginning, the government had plan to supply all the electricity to be generated from the project to the local industry on subsidised rates to make them competitive.

But, this idea was dropped by the former MMA government, which decided giving only 10MW electricity to selected sick industrial units of the province, whereas major chuck of the 71MW would be sold out to the Wapda to generate around Rs1.6 billion annually.

Even the government’s decision of providing 10MW electricity to the sick industrial units did not seem feasible and down the line the government will sale this electricity to the Wapda as well, the official maintains.

The official says that the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), a body which determines per unit price for power, had fixed 4.80 cents as per unit price for the Malakand-III hydel project. However, the provincial government is in process of filing petition to enhance the price.

The project was supposed to complete last year, but technical problems and evacuation of Chinese engineers from the area in the wake of military operation in Swat, the project completion period had been extended time and again, causing a delay of more than one year.