LAHORE: The $78 million Project Implementation Letter (PIL)-2 for Mangla Refurbishment Project (MRP) was signed on Wednesday between Wapda and the USAID.

Water and Power Deve­lop­­ment Authority (Wapda) Chairman Lt General (retired) Muzammil Hussain and United States Agency for International Deve­lopment (USAID) Mission Director in Pakistan Jerry Bisson signed the document on behalf of their respective organisations.

The USAID grant will be spent to undertake various works of Package V-IX of the project. PIL-1 worth $72m for MRP was signed between USAID and Wapda in 2014.

“The MRP, on its completion, will enhance generation capacity of the existing Mangla Hydel Power Station from 1,000 megawatt (MW) to 1,310 MW, thus registering an increase of 310 MW. The refurbishment works have been divided into 11 different packages which will be implemented in various phases. The generating units will be refurbished by closing down one tunnel (two generating units) at a time. Refurbishment of the first two units will be completed in year 2019, while refurbishment of all 10 generating units is likely to be accomplished by year 2024,” a Wapda press release said.

In view of the ageing generating equipment and ensure availability of additional water, Wapda is implementing MRP with an approved PC-I cost of Rs52.224bn. USAID is providing $150m as grant while the French Development Agency is providing €90m as loan. The remaining amount is being arranged by Wapda.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2018