LAHORE – The Khan Khwar High-head Hydropower Project 72 megawatt (MW) will formally be inaugurated on Saturday (today).
The project will provide 306 million units of low-cost electricity per annum to national grid. Annual benefits of the project have been estimated at more than Rs 2.75 billion.
The project has been constructed on Khan Khwar (Nullah), a right bank tributary of River Indus near Besham town in District Shangla of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, some 265 kilometers from Islamabad and 350 kilometers from Peshawar on Karakuram Highway. Main component of the project includes a 46-meter high and 112-meter long dam, about 5-kilometer long tunnel, power house and a switchyard. The project is connected with national grid through 132/220 Kilo Volt (KV) transmission line constructed for three high-head hydropower projects.
The project has been completed with a cost of Rs 10.73 billion that includes Rs 5.049 billion as foreign exchange component. Islamic Development Bank provided a loan amounting to $30.8 million for the project.
Khan Khwar Hydropower Project is a part of least-cost energy generation plan of Wapda being executed on priority in view of the increasing demand of electricity in the country.
Under the plan, 17 large projects are under construction/ at detailed engineering stage, which will generate more than 20,000 MW of electricity. Of them, six hydropower projects with cumulative generation capacity of about 400 MW will be completed during the current year.
Prominent amongst the rest of the 11 projects are 969 MW-Neelum Jhelum, 106 MW-Golen Gol, 4500 MW-Diamer Basha Dam, 1410 MW-Tarbela 4th Extension, 84 MW-Kurrum Tangi, 4320 MW-Dasu, 740 MW-Munda, 7100 MW-Bunji etc.