LAHORE: At least 53 per cent of civil works of the Tarbela Extension has been completed and progress on the power house stands at 55pc.

Project General Manager Iqbal Masood Siddiqui told a briefing during a visit of Wapda chairman Zafar Mahmood.

He said the progress was 70pc on the generating unit No 17, whereas unit No 16 achieved 44pc and unit No 15 got 37pc.

He said that every effort was being made to complete the project as per the accelerated construction programme and it should benefit the country by $300 million by utilizing additional flows of water by 2017. Reviewing the construction work, the chairman said the Tarbela Extension Hydropower Project was of vital importance to help overcome electricity shortages in the country in line with the federal government’s resolve.

The chairman directed the project authorities to closely monitor the progress on the accelerated programme, and make sure that the contractors adhere to the time lines in letter and spirit so as to complete the project by June 2017 ahead of its original schedule.

The Tarbela 4th Extension Hydropower Project was being constructed on tunnel No 4 of the Tarbela Dam.

The project will increase generation capacity of the Tarbela Hydel Power Station from 3,478MW to 4,888MW after installation of three units -- with installed capacity of 470MW each.

The World Bank is providing $840 million for construction of the project. On completion, the Tarbela Extension Hydropower Project will add 3.84 billion units of low-cost electricity to the national grid per annum. Annual benefits of the project have been estimated at about Rs30bn.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2016