Pakistan orders completion of two hydel projects by June

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has ordered the completion of two major hydropower projects that will add about 2,380 megawatts of electricity to the national grid before June 2017, the media reported on Saturday.

The federal government has asked to ensure effective monitoring of the Tarbela-IV Extension Project and the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project (NJHP) for their completion before the deadline, Dawn online reported.

Informed sources said the chief executive officer of the 969MW NJHP, Muhammad Zubair, was directed to shift the project's headquarters from Islamabad to its site at Muzaffarabad for on-site monitoring of the work.

The water and power secretary was told to submit fortnightly reports about the two projects to the Prime Minister Secretariat.

It was reported that the Neelum-Jhelum project had faced delays in the past because of shortage of funds. The project will produce 5.15 billion units of electricity.

The Tarbela extension (T4) project has also been targeted to be completed by June 2017. Originally, it was estimated to cost $928 million, but the estimate has been revised downwards to $651 million.

The existing power house at Tarbela, completed in 1974, has a total generation capacity of 3,478MW. It is expected to go up to 4,888MW on completion.