LAHORE, Nov 27: The Water and Power Development Authority is currently working on more than 20 projects that would produce over 20,000MW electricity besides storing 12 million acres feet (MAF) of water, says chairman Syed Raghib Abbas Shah.

Speaking at his maiden press conference here at Wapda House, the chairman said out of these projects, six, with generation capacity of 400MW and storage capacity of one million acre feet would be complete by mid-2013.

If the government continued releasing funds as per its commitment, the authority would be able to generate 5,000MW electricity in the next five years and 14,000MW additional power by the end of 2020, he claimed.

Flanked by other Wapda members, Shah detailed the progress on different projects. Jinnah Hydropower Project on Indus River, with 96MW generation capacity, would be substantially completed next month. Repair work on damages caused by recent floods would, however, continue. But generation of cheap electricity is expected to start next month.

Regarding 121MW Allai Khawar project, the chairman said the test run was already underway while full generation would start by early next month. Similarly, 130MW Dubair Khawar project should start generating power by March 2013. Gomal Zam Dam would start generation of 17MW electricity next month with storage capacity of 1.14MAF. This electricity will be fed to Tank and adjoining tribal area of South Wazirastan. It is being given final touches these days and staff deputed there has done a great job keeping in view the security situation in the area. Eight of the employees have been abducted from the dam site. Satpara dam is also in its final stage and would start generating 17MW by March 2013 to be fed to local area in Sakardu, besides storing 0.93maf water. Twenty-two megawatt Jabban Hydropower project would start generation by March 2013.

“We are also vigorously pursuing multi-purpose mega Diamar-Basha dam, which is ready for construction,” he claimed and added: “The project would generate 4,500MW besides providing 8MAF water.

He said the Asian Development Bank had asked for changes in resettlement package which had been incorporated. The infrastructure related work to solve logistic issues was being done, besides land acquisition for the dam, he added. Priority was being given to the dam, he said, expressing the hope that work on $13 billion project’s dam site would soon start. “We have sought expression of interest for the appointment of consultant,” he revealed.

Regarding funding of the project, the chairman said negotiation with various international financial institutions, including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, were underway. The WB was still discussing the project internally and was corresponding with Wapda on the matter, he added. Appropriate announcement would be made about progress on the matter once a consortium was finalised in the light of funding arrangement, he observed.

“We are also focusing on our efforts to increase power generation capacity of Mangla Power House from 1,000MW to 1,400MW.

The United States is expected to help Pakistan in replacing decades-old turbine of the Mangla Dam. An agreement in this connection is likely to be reached soon. JICA has also expressed interest in this project,” he said.

The chairman said work on 969MW Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower project was being done swiftly and 40 per cent of it has already been done. He admitted there were procedural delays in execution of Golan Gol Hydropower project which was being streamlined.

About small and medium dams, he said lack of resources had hampered some progress. However, he said, Darawat dam in Sindh would be complete in December 2012 while work on Naulang and Nai Gaj was also being expedited. About construction of Kalabagh dam, he said construction of consensus projects, including Diamar Basha Dam, was being carried out and other projects could be initiated later following removal of differences among federating units.