The federal Water and Power Ministry and the National Engineering Services Pakistan (NESPAK) have fully endorsed the evaluation of the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and the consultants pertaining to lot 3.2 for the electro-mechanical works of the 106 MW-Golen Gol Hydropower Project.
With this development, a hurdle in the way to the timely completion of the project is over, as the project might have been delayed due to the controversy created by M/s Andritz-one of the bidders for the electrical and mechanical works of the project.
On the complaint lodged by M/s Andritz against WAPDA for declaring M/s Rainpower as the lowest bidder for the lot, the Water and Power Ministry probed the issue through a fact finding enquiry and NESPAK. In its letter issued on June 7, the ministry states that NESPAK considered that the WAPDA committee’s report supplemented the consultants’ tender evaluation and together with the exhaustive deliberations exercised by WAPDA, Rainpower Consortium’s tender was found to be the most advantageous for the project.
The ministry, in the letter, has also directed WAPDA to take necessary action regarding the award of the contract. Any delay in the completion of the project could inflict a loss of about Rs 5 billion per year in the shape of losses in power generation, escalation and claims by the contractor.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Golen Gol Hydropower Project is under construction in district Chitral in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with an installed capacity of generating 106 mega watt (MW) of electricity. It is partially financed by Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFD) and the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
