ISLAMABAD: The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) on Thursday awarded a $354.6 million worth of contract to Power Construction Corporation of China Ltd (PCCCL) for civil works of the 1,530MW Tarbela 5th Extension Hydropower Project after completion of an international competitive bidding process.

The contract was signed by Project Director Tarbela 5th Extension Project Muhammad Azam Joya and PCCCL Executive Representative in Pakistan Ling Jianke. The signing ceremony was also attended by Wapda Chairman Muzammil Hussain, World Bank Country Director Najy Benhassine, World Bank Task Team Leader Dr Rickard Liden, Wapda Member Finance Naveed Asghar, Member Water Abdul Zahir Khan Durrani, Member Power Jamil Akhtar, General Managers concerned and representatives of the project consultants.

The contract involves modification of tunnel-5, raised intake, power house, tailrace works including channel and culverts and penstocks. The project will be fully completed in 37 months with first unit coming into production by end-May 2024, followed by second unit by end-June and third unit by end-July 2024.

The 5th extension project is being constructed on tunnel no. 5 of Tarbela dam with approved PC-1 cost of $807 million (Rs82.36bn). International Bank for Recons­truction and Development (IBRD), World Bank is providing $390m, while Asian Infrastructure Invest­ment Bank (AIIB) to give $300m loan. Cumulative generation capacity of the project would be 1,530MW with three generating units of 510MW each.

The project is scheduled to start generation by mid-2024 and will provide 1.347 billion units to the national grid every year. Upon its completion, Tarbela dam’s power generation potential would stand fully harnessed its installed capacity of 4,888MW at present to 6,418MW.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2021