LAHORE: US Central Command (Centcom) Commander Gen Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr on Saturday reached Tarbela dam and visited various components of the project including the main dam, spillways, reservoir and power house.

Accompanied by US Ambassador to Pakistan Paul Jones and others, Gen McKenzie was briefed about the project by Water and Power Development Authority chairman (Wapda) retired Lt Gen Muzammil Hussain.

The US delegation said that the recent US grant of $41 million would extend life of the Tarbela powerhouse by 15-20 years and restore 148MW of its power generation capacity.

Visiting delegation says recent US grant of $41 million will extend life of powerhouse

Welcoming the US delegation, the Wapda chairman said the dam had been playing a vital role for economic stability and social development of Pakistan since its completion in 1974 by providing water for agriculture, mitigating floods and injecting a sizeable quantum of low-cost and environment-friendly hydel electricity to the national grid. “Despite being in the fifth decade of its life, the Tarbela reservoir can still store more than six million acre feet (MAF) of water. At present, generation capacity of Tarbela Hydel Power Station stands at 4,888MW with completion of its fourth extension last year. In view of the successful completion of fourth extension within stipulated cost and time, the federal government has decided to implement Tarbela fifth extension project on a fast track basis. The fifth extension will add another 1410MW to the generation capacity of Tarbela Hydel Power Station,” he explained.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2019