APP
PESHAWAR
The government has almost completed work on Daral Khwar hydropower project with 36.60megawatt capacity, which would start operation in June this year to provide inexpensive and affordable electricity to agriculture, industrial and domestic consumers.
Officials in Energy Department KP told APP on Monday that physical work on this mega project has been completed and it was now in testing stage and would formally be operational in June 2018.
He said National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has granted license for power generation to Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (PEDO) for the project’s plant constructed at Daral Khwar near Bahrain in Swat district.
PEDO has identified around 6000megwatt hydropower potential at various sites in province and the selected sites are at different stages of implementation, and that one of such power sites is at Daral Khwar located on a tributary of River Swat on which work has almost been completed by the relevant authorities.
The project will help utilizing its water, which is Renewable Energy (RE) source and all necessary arrangements and care was made to overcome environmental concerns including soil, water and noise pollution in the area.
He said PEDO had carried out required Initial Environment Examination Study and obtained NOC from Environmental Protection Agency KP.
He said PEDO has successfully completed six small and medium sized hydel power projects including 81.00 MW Malakand-Ill, 18.00 MW Pehur, 1.80 MW Shishi, 4.20 MW Reshun, 2.40 MW Machai and 17.00 MW Ranolia Projects in the province. He said Ronalia, Machi and Daral Khwar projects were completed with an estimated cost of around Rs15billion in about four years time.
He said PEDO is currently working on several hydropower projects, which are at different stages of implementation and completion in Chitral, Dir, Swat, Mansehra and Kohistan.
Khyber Pakthunkhwa and FATA are most suited for hydel power generation and the Federal Government has taken full advantage of this huge potential by initiating scores of energy projects worth thousands of megawatts to get rid of load shedding.
Federal Government has completed gigantic Golen Gol electricity project of 108megawatt capacity costing Rs29billion in Chitral that was a leap step forward towards autarky in energy sector besides addressing the long inherited problem of load shedding in the province.
The installed generation capacity of Chitral Gol project is 108 MW with three generating units having a capacity of 36MW each as its first unit has already been completed and was recently inaugurated by Prime Minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. This project will provide 436 million units of electricity to the national grid every year with about Rs 3.7billion benefits per annum.
Work on multi dimensional Kurram-Tangi dam in North Waziristan Agency has been started and would be completed in two stages with gross water storage capacity of about 1.2MAF besides 83.4MW of electricity capacity.
USAID would provide about Rs8.5 billion to WAPDA for construction of Stage-I of Kurram-Tangi dam, being built on Kaithu river in North Wazirstan Agency and an agreement to this effect has already been signed.
The funds would be used for construction of a weir on Kaithu River, Shertalla and Spairaga canals, two powerhouses, a transmission line, housing accommodations for construction and operational staff, an office building for dam construction and operational activities.
Efforts was underway to complete stage-I of the dam by April 2019 and on its completion more than16,000 acres of agricultural land would be irrigated and an additional 18.9 MW of electricity would be produced to benefit 100,000 people.
Gomal Zam dam in South Waziristan Agency with 17.4MW capacity has been completed by the Federal Government and has started electricity generation by facilitating people of Tank, DI Khan and South Waziristan Agency besides irrigating 1,91,0000 acres of barren land of southern districts of KP.
He said completion of these projects would not only address the problem of energy shortfall but also end menace of load-shedding once and for all.