ISLAMABAD: The Tarbela Hydel Power Station will become largest powering generation facility in the country having accumulative capacity of 6298 MW with addition of 5th Extension project.

Official sources told APP here that the existing installed capacity of Tarbela Hydel Power Station stood at 3478 while 1410 MW was being added with 4th Extension project.

The first unit of 4th Extension project having 470 MW capacity has already been started generation and remaining two units would shortly be added.

The Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) has already approved the PC 1 of the project while the World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) have partnered to provide US$690 million for the completion of the project.

The World Bank and AIIB are providing $390 million and $ 300 million respectively.

The project is estimated to cost $823.5 million and remaining would be contributed by WAPDA the National Transmission and Dispatch Company.

As per details of the project, the existing Tunnel No. 5 of the Tarbela Dam will be converted into power tunnel without affecting the irrigation release capabilities.

As many as three units with generation capacity of 470 MW each will be installed to generate 1410 MW electricity during summer season.

It is a low-risk and high-reward project aimed at providing more than 1.8 billion units of the lost-cost hydel electricity to the national grid per annum.

The project’s Financial Internal Rate of Return (FIRR) has been estimated at 13.5 percent.