CHITRAL: Rehabilitation of the power channel of the 108 megawatts hydropower station came to a halt in Golen area on Thursday.

The facility was hit by glacial flooding on July 13 leading to its closure.

Work has already been stopped on the restoration of four kilometers road between Booni Road and the power channel’s intake point inside the valley including two bridges over the stream by Wapda.

Sources in Wapda told Dawn that work had halted due to delay in the issuance of the administrative approval for the restoration of the power channel structure, road and bridges.

They said work was launched on the insistence of local administration and people.

The sources said the contractor had restored two of the four bridges and one kilometer long road, while in the intake point of the power channel, around one quarter of flood debris had been removed from the tank.

They said without approval of the competent authority, work couldn’t resume.

Meanwhile, the residents decried delay in the restoration of road saying the valley has been closed to vehicular traffic, while more than 400 families have been disconnected from the rest of the district.

Chairman of the Koh Local Support Organisation Abdul Ghafar said the first kilometer of the valley road was maintained by Wapda as part of the power project.

He said halt to restoration had caused shortage of consumers goods in the upstream of the valley, while patients struggled to reach hospitals.

A local engineer said the closure of power station caused a loss of around Rs25 million daily as it could generate 2.6 million units (kwh) of electricity in 24 hours.

When contacted, Lower Chitral DC Naveed Ahmad said the project director of the Golen Gol power project had promised the operationalisation of the powerhouse on Aug 14.

He said he visited the valley a day ago, where the clearance of debris was in progress.

“I am not aware of halt to work,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2020