ISLAMABAD: The Tarbela Hydel Power Station will become the largest powering generation facility in the country having accumulative capacity of 6,298MW with addition of a fifth extension project. Official sources told media that the existing installed capacity of Tarbela Hydel Power Station stood at 3,478 while 1,410MW was being added with a fourth extension project. The first unit of fourth extension project having 470MW capacity has already started generation and the remaining two units would be added shortly. The Executive Committee of National Economic Council has already approved the PC 1 of the project while the World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) have partnered to provide $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 the Water & Power Development Authority wich is the national transmission and dispatch company. As per details of the project, the existing tunnel #5 of the Tarbela Dam will be converted into a power tunnel without affecting irrigation release capabilities. As many as three units with generation capacity of 470MW each will be installed to generate 1,410MW 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 has been estimated at 13.5 percent. Published in Daily Times, April 23rd 2018.