LOWER DIR: About 90 per cent work on the under-construction Koto hydropower project (Koto-HPP) has been done and it will be completed by December this year, said assistant project director while briefing a team of the district administration.

The team, including deputy commissioner Aun Haider Gondal, Timergara assistant commissioner Tahir Ali and other officials, visited the project site here the other day.

Giving details, Koto-HPP assistant director Mohammad Shuaib said the powerhouse would generate 40.8MW of electricity that would be added to the national grid.

Official says it will generate 40.8MW of electricity

He said that the remaining 10 per cent work on the project would be completed by coming December. He said work on the power tunnel had been completed by the contractor before its stipulated time.

The deputy commissioner inspected various portions of the power station like box channel, surge shaft, sand trap and powerhouse and assured his full cooperation on part of his district administration for the timely completion of the project.

Mr Shuaib said the objective of the scheme was to develop power potential in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on a sustainable basis to provide environment-friendly energy to the consumers.

Work on the project was started in Feb 2015 and according to its contract it was to be completed in Feb 2019.

The project was jointly identified by the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo) and GTZ Germany in 1992.

He said that the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved the project on Aug 18, 2014, with a revised cost of Rs13.9 billion while the contract was awarded on Dec 10, 2014.

Talking to this correspondent, a resident of the area Amjad Ali Shah claimed that several dates for completion had been announced earlier by the authorities, but the project was yet to be completed.

FEUD SETTLED: A jirga of elders on Sunday settled a blood feud between two families in Munda area of Jandol.

Last year, a business dispute between the residents of Gosam and Dandoshah areas had led to a firing incident in which five people, including four from one family and one person from the other, were killed.

With the efforts of jirga leaders, the two parties came to the table and held talks. The jirga led by JI district chief Izazul Mulk made efforts to convince the parties to end enmity, which succeeded in the end.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2021