HARIPUR, Oct 20: Tarbela power house chief engineer Khursheed Anwar has said that fourth extension plan of the dam’s power house will increase its generation capacity by 960 megawatts and help Wapda overcome loadshedding.

Talking to Dawn at his office on Saturday, he said the extension project was designed in the light of a study carried out by a foreign company under the auspices of Nespak in 1992 according to which two power units with a capacity of 475 megawatts each would be installed on tunnel 4 of the power house.

“The planned capacity on the tunnel will definitely add to the gross power generation in the country and contribute to efforts aimed at reducing loadshedding,” he said.

He said the existing power generation capacity of Tarbela would enhance to 4,438 megawatts from the existing 3,478 MW with the installation of two new units.

Initially built for irrigation purpose, the Tarbela dam also serves as the biggest source of hydel power generation in the country.

The first phase of the Tarbela power house, he said, was completed in 1977 in which four units were installed on tunnel-1 and the second phase completed in 1985 with commissioning of six units on tunnel-2.

All the 10 units have a rated capacity of 175 MW each and third extension was completed in 1992-93.

In this phase four electricity generation units of 432MW each were installed on tunnel-3.

Mr Anwar said that the total cost of the three extensions was Rs16 billion while the dam had generated 333 billion units of electricity since its commissioning.

Replying to a question, he said that Tarbela’s contribution to the total hydel power was 56.5 per cent.

He said that at present Wapda was paying Rs6 billions annually to the Frontier government on account of net hydel profit, which was expected to enhance significantly after the fourth extension of Tarbela.

Mr Anwar said that the PPIB had issued letter of interest to the consortium of a local and foreign companies who were expected to start work on the project very soon.