In the wake of the fire that broke out in the jungle adjacent to the Tarbela Dam Thursday night, the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) Chairman Shakil Durrani visited the project on Saturday to witness the situation on-ground.
He took a detailed round of the various components of the project, the switchyard and the power station in particular.
WAPDA Member (Power) Muhammad Qasim Khan, Tarbela Dam Project General Manager Hazrat Umar, Hydro Operation General Manager Wajid Hameed and other senior officers were also present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, the chairman said the Tarbela Dam Project had been playing a pivotal role for the national economy since its completion in the mid 70s. He directed the project authorities to devise a comprehensive strategy on the basis of an in-depth analysis of the incident to minimise the possibility of the occurrence of such events in the future. Smooth functioning of the project, the safety and protection of the national asset ought to be the foremost priority of the project management, he added.
The project authorities informed that the fire occurred in the bushes/trees under the distribution transformers because of sparking following the high winds. However, the fire was put out through concerted efforts. No damage was caused to any WAPDA installation, as all the equipment was immediately insulated from the fire, they said.
Later, the chairman also attended a briefing at the Tarbela 4th Extension Hydropower Project. He was told that an Expression of Interest (EoI) had been called to initiate the pre-qualification process for the construction of the project, as the detailed engineering designs of the project had been completed.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Tarbela 4th Extension Project, with a power generation capacity of 1410 MW, is a part of the least cost energy generation plan being implemented by the WAPDA on priority.
The World Bank is providing $840 million for the construction of the project. With the completion of the Tarbela 4th Extension, the generation capacity of the existing Tarbela Power Station will rise from 3478 MW to 4888 MW. On its completion, the project will provide about 3.84 billion units of low-cost electricity per annum to the national grid.
The annual benefits of the project have been estimated at more than Rs 30 billion. The project will pay back its cost within three years.
In accordance to my conviction the Construction of Dams ,its benefits,its merits and demerits must be consulted by the Dams experts,as its a subject of Engineering not
of Non-Engineering and Non-Technical and Non Scientific politicians who are fooling the Nation for the last 65 years.The Dams are the back bone of the National Economy
which chiefly linked with stability of Pakistan,and the stability of Pakistan chiefly linked the prosperity of Pakistan and the prosperity of Pakistan is the only guarantee of its sovereignty and independence to get rid of American slavery for ever.Such as the Kala Bagh Dame feasiblity reports are already completed by the experts and the foreign consultants despite that is the one of the long standing issue beng exploited by the politicians.This burning issue must left upon the high level WAPDA Authorties under the Chairmanship of Chairman WAPDA AND THE DAM Experts from all the forth provinces EVEN INCLUDING AZAD Kashmir to be decided in the best interest of the masses of all the 4 provinces.Its entirely Engineering subject and must be decided only by the Enginers and the Dam experts.M.Younus Raja (Rawalpindi)
The Government must consume all of its energy to elocate the meximum funding for the Dam construction regardless of bigger or smaller,Exploration of oil and gas reserves,awarding contract to world famed International oil exploring and drilling companis,also encouraging local oil drilling companies,such as OGDC,SNGPL,PPL,,Pakistan oil, these are the projects of national importance chiefly linke with the stability soundness and prosoerity of Pakistan rather than bagging Dollars at the cost of oppressed and exploited masses living bellow poverty line and facing starvation,while the ruling elites are enjoying their Kingly life style at their cost.
The insttutions must be given full powers to be decided their own fate in the best interest of Pakistan which is the only guarantss of rapid growth and its speedy development.
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