LAHORE: With substantial work on the 969MW Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project (NJHP) having been completed, the authorities began filling its reservoir with water on Tuesday.

Located on the Neelum river in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the project situated in a mountainous area is often described as a marvel of engineering, as 90 per cent of it is under ground.

According to a spokesperson for the Water and Power Development Authority, the project comprises four units having an installed capacity of 242.25MW each. The first unit is scheduled to go into operation by the end of February. He said the second unit was scheduled to be commissioned in the middle of March and the third and fourth units in April.

Upon its completion, the project would contribute about five billion units of electricity to the national grid annually, he said. Its revenue was estimated to be Rs50 billion per year.

“The NJHP has entered its final phase, with the completion of its dam structure across the Neelum river at Nauseri. The completion of the 160-metre-long and 60-metre-high dam has enabled impounding of the reservoir, which commenced on Tuesday with the closure of the spillway gates. The water level will be raised at a rate of one to three metres per day,” said a statement issued by the spokesperson.

The storage capacity of the reservoir is 8,207 acre feet, up to the design operating level of 1,015 metres above sea level. After the successful filling of the reservoir, water will be diverted to the waterway system by the end of this year, according to the spokesman.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2017