SAID ALAM KHAN
PESHAWAR: The World Bank Vice President Martin Raiser along with a 4-member delegation, visited Tarbela 5th Extension and Dasu Hydropower Project. Chairman WAPDA Eng Lt Gen Sajjad Ghani (Retd) and World Bank Executive Director Syed Tauqir Hussain Shah also accompanied him. World Bank is providing financial support for construction of these projects.
In the first leg, the World Bank Vice President visited Tarbela 5th Extension Hydropower Project, being constructed on Tunnel No. 5 of Tarbela Dam. He witnessed construction activities on main components. The project management apprised him about progress on the power house, tail race culvert, canal and switch yard. Tarbela 5th Extension has an installed power generation capacity of 1530 MW. On its completion, power generation capacity at Tarbela Dam will increase from 4888 MW to 6418 MW. Tarbela 5th Extension Project will start electricity generation in 2025.
Later, the World Bank Vice President also visited 1410 MW-Tarbela 4th Extension Hydel Power Station, completed in 2018 with financial assistance of the World Bank. He was informed during the visit that Tarbela 4th Extension, since its completion, has provided 22.56 billion units to the National Grid.
In the second leg, the World Bank Vice President flew to under-construction Dasu Hydropower Project at River Indus upstream of Dasu town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He visited the power house, transformers cavern and the project colony to review construction activities. Dasu project team, in a briefing, informed him about progress on main works of the project. It was briefed that the river diversion system has been functioning satisfactorily since its completion early this year. Flushing tunnel is also complete, while excavation of right bank bypass tunnel has recently been completed. Excavation of right and left abutment of the main dam, intake, power house, tailrace tunnel, surge chamber and transformers cavern is in progress. The 4320 MW-Dasu Hydropower Project will be completed in two stages. At present, WAPDA is constructing Stage-I, with installed generation capacity of 2160 MW and annual energy generation of 12 billion units. Stage-I of the Project is likely to be commissioned in 2026.
