Chairman WAPDA Zafar Mahmood has said that wet test of the first production unit of the Neelam Jhelum Hydropower Project will be conducted on June 1st, 2017, while the test of remaining three units will be completed till December 2017.
He said this while briefing the media on accomplishment of the underground river crossing tunnel some 200 meters below the River Jhelum that will take the gushing water of River Neelam to the power house.
Zafar said despite financial constraints the project was progressing well as more than 80 per cent work on the project was completed with Rs 250 billion expenditure. “We are in touch with the friendly countries to raise financing for the project and hopefully financing will be no more an issue.”
A member finance WAPDA informed on the occasion that a National Bank-led consortium was given the task to raise Rs 100 billion for the essential works of the project and just in a week’s time more than 50 per cent commitment was pledged.
About the impact of Kishan Ganga project, Zafar said it would have minimal impact as 77 per cent water catchment area of the River Neelam was after the Kishan Ganga dam in Indian occupied Kashmir.
Neelam Jhelum Hydropower Company CEO Lt Gen (R) Zubair said that the overall effect would be 13 per cent. He said all the equipment was at the site to complete it on schedule. Zafar said the loss due to Kishan Ganga would be compensated as the project has a plant factor of 60 per cent that would come down by five per cent but still higher that the plant factor of 50 per cent for both the main hydropower projects, Tarbela and Mangla.
The 969 MW project will start its production at its full capacity from 2018 onwards. It will have four producing units of 242 MW each. The project was started in 2008 with a cost estimate of Rs 80 billion but was enhanced to Rs 274 billion but now the cost has been again revised to Rs 404 billion.