The government’s plan to start working on two major hydroelectric power projects has been delayed. The Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif has shown disappointed in the setback at the government intended to end electricity shortage by 2018.
Now the PM has directed the Ministry of Water and Power to prepare a report on the commitments made by the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) chairman in relation to the power projects and reasons for the delay.
In recent months, the PM has announced on different occasions that power outages will come to an end in 2018 – the election year – but it appears to be difficult for the government following delay in completion of critical projects.
The government had planned to complete power plants of 10,000-megawatt capacity until the winter of 2018 but the prime minister has now been told that Neelum Jhelum hydroelectric power project and Tarbela-IV Extension project with a cumulative capacity of 2,369MW have been delayed.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, in a high-level meeting chaired by the premier, said the Wapda chairman had assured in a meeting in January 2016 that the Tarbela-IV Extension project with a 1,400MW capacity would start operation in July 2017.
Wapda has been provided payment of additional $51m to hire more human resource and equipment, but it seems that the deadline will not be met.
Regarding the 969MW Neelum Jhelum power project, the meeting was informed that it could not be completed within the set timeframe as the excavation of 4,877 metres of the tunnel would require another 16 months, keeping in view the pace of work.
In this case too, the PM expressed his annoyance over failure to meet the commitment and asked for reasons behind the delay and directed the ministry to prepare a report on the progress and justification for the delay. An official of the power ministry argued that no effective monitoring mechanism was in place.
During the previous Pakistan People’s Party government, the cost of Neelum Jhelum project had jumped to $2.74 billion from $1.8 billion and the estimate further went up to $4.21 billion during the rule of present administration.
In order to secure water supplies, Pakistan had kicked off work on the Neelum Jhelum River in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, but at the same time, India developed the Kishanganga hydroelectric power project on the river, which sparked a legal battle between the two countries in the International Court of Arbitration.
The project was earlier scheduled to be completed by October 2015, but the deadline has been revised to November 2016. Its financial close has not yet been achieved.
In a meeting in June last year, the prime minister had been told that the project would not be ready even in 2016 and work may be extended to 2017.
The power ministry official spoke about the planned increase in power production by 10,000MW with the help of different fuels by the winter of 2018.
According to him, 441MW excluding Guddu plant will be available in the summer of 2016 and 1,121MW by the winter, including 680MW from the civil nuclear power plants. A considerable improvement will be made in 2017 through the addition of 4,418MW and a total of 9,090MW will be added to the national grid by the winter of 2017. This includes 2,400MW from LNG-based power plants.
A properly executed project relies on many factors and events to happen on time and with in planned cost, the project leader is always under pressure to achieve each phase and sub-phase on time. He relies on his project staff, his work force and contractors to deliver on time. There are things under his control and there are things outside his control. He has either partial or no control on materials and machinery to arrive on time. Given the nature of our bureaucracy, efficiency and time constraints are an anathema because merit has long been despised as a vice by our rulers, they prefer the virtues of political expediency and nepotism. When both the contractors and the project management are products of political expediency, appointed to oil the wheels of kickbacks and corruption, delays and inefficiency are built in to the system. There is another very pertinent question, Is it reasonable for the prime minister to expect the projects to be completed to satisfy the demand of his electability in the election when the actual time required to complete the projects cannot be met in such time span?
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