Daily Times

LAHORE: Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) Chairman Lieutenant General (r) Muzammil Hussain on Tuesday inspected the building site of Mohmand Dam, located on the Swat River approximately 37 km north of Peshawar, in the Mohmand district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

“The Mohmand reservoir will generate 740 MW of hydroelectricity, store 1.290 Million acre-feet (MAF) of water for irrigating 15,100 acres of land and control floods downstream, and would mitigate floods risks in Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera,” the Chairman said, in his talk to the media.

He asserted that concerning the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s (SCP) judgment for early commencement of the project, a number of options were considered to initiate its construction during the fiscal year 2018-19, and WAPDA, in this regard, has already completed its feasibility study, developed engineering designs and tendered documents.

Scheduled to be completed in five years and eight months, the dam will significantly contribute towards development of agriculture, industrial, economic and social sectors in Pakistan.

Later, he interacted with several notables of the region, and expressed his gratitude to them for supporting the cause of combating energy crisis and water scarcity, and cooperating in land acquisition process and resettlement in the region.

“WAPDA will pay an appropriate amount of compensation to the locals, who sacrificed their lands and assets to develop dam’s infrastructure, healthcare units and education institutes in the region,” he said.

Meanwhile, he also visited the Warsak Hydroelectric Power Station to analyze the execution of second rehabilitation project of Warsak Dam to help restore the power station’s generation capacity, which dropped to 193 megawatts from 243MW due to ageing of electro-mechanical equipment.

The rehabilitation work, to be completed in about seven years, is being carried out at an approved cost of Rs22.25 billion to overcome the ageing problem, recover the 50MW capacity loss with reliable annual energy generation of 1.14 billion units, upgrade and modernise the old system and achieve another lifecycle of 30 to 40 years.

Published in Daily Times, August 1^st 2018.