Daily Times

Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) is going to divert River Swat in April this year at the under-construction Mohmand Dam, as diversion system of the project is steadily heading towards completion in accordance with the timelines.

In this connection, Chairman WAPDA, Engr Lt Gen Sajjad Ghani (Retd) visited Mohmand Dam, being constructed across River Swat in Mohmand district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said a press release issued here on Tuesday.

He visited in detail construction sites of the spillway, the diversion tunnels and the power house to review construction activities going on there.

Advisor (Projects) WAPDA, GM and PD Mohmand Dam Project and the Consultants and the Contractors were also present during the visit.

Later, the chairman also presided over a progress review meeting at the project office. At present, construction work is continuing on 12 sites.

The project team gave a detailed briefing about diversion scheme, concreting and slope stabilization at the spillway, slope excavation and support works at the power house, excavation at the irrigation tunnels, construction of structures across the irrigation canals and finishing works at the permanent access roads located on both right and left banks of the river.

The chairman was briefed that the offices and the employees had been permanently shifted to the newly constructed facilities in the project area.

A few completed buildings will also be taken over and the remaining staff will be shifted there accordingly. Emphasizing upon the need for timely completion of Mohmand Dam, the chairman urged the contractors to expedite the activities relating to quarry development for the dam.

He directed deployment of additional resources for the purpose.

Mohmand Dam is a multipurpose project, which will store water for agriculture, control floods, supply water to Peshawar for urban use and generate green, clean and economically affordable hydel electricity.

The project is scheduled for completion in 2026 and will store 1.29 MAF of water to irrigate 18,237 acres of new land in Mohmand and Charsadda and supplement irrigation supplies to 160,000 acres of existing land. The project has an installed power capacity of 800 MW with annual energy generation of 2.86 billion units of electricity.

It will also provide 300 million gallons water per day to Peshawar for drinking purpose. Annual benefits of the project are estimated at Rs 51.6 billion.