LAHORE: The Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) has decided to submit PC-I of the implementation of the 1410-M Tarbela, fifth extension hydropower project.

The PC-1 of the $795.8 million project will be submitted to the Ministry of Water and Power for approval of the Planning Commission.

This decision was made in a meeting of the authority held here on Friday at Wapda House. The meeting, presided over by Wapda Chairman Zafar Mahmood, was attended by Member (water) Muhammad Shoaib Iqbal, Member (power) Badrul Munir Murtiza, Member (finance) Anwarul Haq and Wapda Secretary Syed Khalid Akhlaq Gilani.

The project authorities and representatives of the consultants were also present on the occasion.

A presentation was made on the PC-I of the project in the meeting by General Manager (Tarbela Dam project) Iqbal Maqsood Siddiqui who discussed the estimates quoted in the PC-I.

Participants noted the revision of PC-I of the projects resulted in escalation of the cost, and delayed their scheduled completion.

The Tarbela 5th Extension Hydropower Project is part of the least-cost hydel power generation plan of the federal government, being executed by Wapda on priority. The project is like a low-hanging fruit, benefits of which may be accrued in a very short span of time as the project will be completed before the high-flows season of 2018.

Under the project, the existing Tunnel No 5 of the Tarbela Dam will be converted into power tunnel without affecting the irrigation release capabilities. As many as three units with generation capacity of 470MW each will be installed to generate 1,410MW electricity during the summer season. It is a low-risk and high-reward project aimed at providing more than 1.8 billion units of the lost-cost hydel electricity to the national grid per annum. The project’s financial internal rate of return has been estimated at 13.5 per cent.

The installed capacity of the existing 3,478MW-Tarbela Hydel Power Station will rise to 4,888MW after the completion of the under-construction Tarbela 4th extension and 6,298MW after the completion of the fifth project.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2015

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