LAHORE, July 13: The 72 megawatt Khan Khwar High-head Hydropower Project will formally be inaugurated on Saturday (today).

The project will provide 306 million units of low-cost electricity per annum to the National Grid. Annual benefits of the project have been estimated at more than Rs2.75 billion.

The project has been constructed on Khan Khwar (Nullah), a right bank tributary of the River Indus near Besham Town in Shangla District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – some 265 kilometres from Islamabad and 350 kilometres from Peshawar on Karakuram Highway.

Main component of the project includes a 46-metre high and 112-metre long dam, about five-kilometre long tunnel, a power house and a switchyard.

The project is connected with the National Grid through a 132/220 Kilo Volt (KV) transmission line constructed for three high-head hydropower projects.

The project has been completed with a cost of Rs10.73 billion that includes Rs5.049 billion as foreign exchange component.

Islamic Development Bank provided a loan amounting to $30.8 million for the project.

Khan Khwar Hydropower Project is a part of least-cost energy generation plan of Wapda being executed on priority in view of the increasing demand of electricity in the country. Under the plan, 17 large projects are under construction/at detailed engineering stage, which will generate more than 20,000MW. Of them, six hydropower projects with a cumulative generation capacity of about 400MW will be completed during the current year.

Prominent amongst the rest of the 11 projects are 969MW Neelum-Jhelum, 106MW Golen Gol, 4500MW Diamer Basha Dam, 1,410MW Tarbela’s 4th Extension, 84MW Kurrum Tangi, 4,320MW Dasu, 740MW Munda and 7,100MW Bunji etc.