LAHORE, June 26: The first unit of the 22 megawatts Jabban Hydroelectric Power Station in Malakand was put on test run on Wednesday after completion of the civil and electro-mechanical work of a French-funded project for its rebuilding.

The station will begin supplying electricity to the national grid soon.

French Ambassador Philippe Thiebaud and the Water and Power Development Authority’s Chairman Syed Raghib Abbas Shah unveiled a plaque to mark the event.

The power station has been reconstructed on the Swat canal system at a cost of Rs3.75 billion, of which the French development agency AFD provided about Rs3.4bn as soft loan. It will contribute 122 million units of cheap electricity to the national grid.

The Jabban power station was set up in 1937 with a generation capacity of 9.6MW. It was the country‘s biggest hydro-electric power station when Pakistan came into being. In 1952, its capacity was increased to 19.6MW.

The station was badly damaged in a fire in November 2006 and Wapda decided to rebuild it instead of undertaking repairs. Under the rehabilitation project, four units of 5.5MW have been installed.

Speaking at the ceremony, the French ambassador said his country, through the AFD, was fully committed to helping resolve the energy crisis in Pakistan.

He said the success of this first operation, as well as exceptional hydropower potential, had encouraged Pakistan and France to jointly engage in other projects in the future. He praised Wapda for executing the project without a cost over-run or delay.

The Wapda chairman thanked France and expressed the hope that cooperation between French institutions and the authority would be enhanced for development of the water and hydropower sectors.