Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The reservoir filling of the Suki Kinari Hydropower Project started successfully on Wednesday, marking the completion of another significant milestone and laying a solid foundation for the scheduled power generation target of the Project.

According to the press statement issued here on Wednesday, the project has mainly been invested by China Gezhouba Group Overseas Investment Company, belonging to China Energy Engineering Corporation (CEEC).

The important moment of reservoir filling was witnessed by owners of S K Project Company, engineers, personnel, and other construction participants.

The Dam of the Project is an asphalt concrete core-wall rockfill dam with a crest elevation of 2,239.5 meters, a maximum height of 54.5 meters, a crest width of 10 meters, a length of 258 meters, and a total backfill volume of about 1.9 million cubic meters, the statement added.

During construction, S K Project Company efficiently coordinated all construction participants, optimized the design schemes, accelerated the construction period, and achieved the dam capping target on May 2023 as scheduled.

After capping, S K Project Company led the relating parties in the commissioning of M&E work, reservoir area slope support and other related work, and finally starts the reservoir filling as scheduled with several months’ efforts.

The Project is included in the first batch of priority projects list of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which serves as the first step of the “Belt and Road” Initiative.

It is currently the largest greenfield hydropower overseas project invested by Chinese enterprise, and has drawn great attention from the Chinese and Pakistan governments and all sectors of society.

So far, the overall construction progress of the project exceeds 98 percent. Specifically, a number of key milestones such as dam body filling, headrace tunnel lining, installation of pressure steel lining and installation of units have been completed on schedule, and the power generation target is planned to be achieved in 2024.

The Project is the largest hydropower station invested by CEEC overseas. Upon completion, it can provide 3.212×109 KWH of clean electricity annually, filling 1/5 of Pakistan’s gap in power supply, alleviating severe power shortages, and promoting the high-quality development of local economy and society.

Next step, S K Project Company will continue to thoroughly implement CEEC’s requirements of “building a world-class enterprise”, strengthen scientific management, and ensure the achievement of annual milestones such as water commissioning and project COD through effective measures, the statement concluded.