PESHAWAR: A power house with a generation capacity of 1.2MW has started functioning on a test basis in Ashuran area of Kalam here.

The power house has been set up by Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) with the assistance of European Union under the Peace Project.

The Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo) had handed two dysfunctional power houses at Kalam to SRSP in 2013 to restore and run them as a social enterprise, according to a statement issued here.

This was part of the government’s initiative to bring innovative solutions to local problems in remote regions. Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, PTI chief Imran Khan and senior leader Jehangir Tareen had attended the ground-breaking of the project in 2013.

Both the power houses at Jungle Inn and Ashuran had been set up by the then Sarhad Hydel Development Organisation (SHYDO) and had run for some years, but remained dysfunctional for six years after the 2010 floods and the militancy in Swat.

The Jungle Inn power house was raised to 400KV by SRSP and restored in 2014 in a six-month period. The 400KV power house at Ashuran was raised to 1.2MW capacity, but it took two years for completion as a 5,400-foot channel, including a 174-foot aqueduct and a huge fore-bay and a very large intake, were built. The project got completed in July this year. Chinese teams took another four months to complete its technical installation.

The Jungle Inn power house is already supplying electricity to 1,100 households and 50 hotels, and the Ashuran power house will supply electricity to another 64 hotels and over 4,000 households over a 14 kilometre area. It is estimated that Kalam will have a total of 1.6KV of electricity and estimated 400 kilowatts of excess electricity which would help boost economic activity in the area. Kalam could thus become the first valley in KP with excess electricity.

With the running of Ashuran Power House Kalam will not have electricity shortages in winters because the water flow unlike Jungle Inn is sufficient at Ashuran to supply electricity to the area.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2016