Work on Terbela 4 to start early next year

Islamabad: Secretary Ministry of Water and Power, Nargis Sethi along with senior officials of the Ministry paid visit to Tarbela Dam and Power Generation Units today to assess the and take stock of the preparation made for the Tarbela-4 Power Generation unit of 1400 MW.

The Secretary directed all concerned officials both at the Ministry, Water and Power Development Authority and Project management of Tarbela-4 to take extra measures and utilize their energies to start work on the project by early next year.”After the successful operation of energy conservation drive and power distribution management phases, time has come when medium and long term measures are taken to increase the affordable hydel generation capacity of the country”, Nargis said while talking to the officials at the project site.

She emphasized the authorities concerned with hydel generation to start survey of other hydel projects and identify additional power generation prospects. This, she said would add additional mega watts to the national grid at affordable cost.

The Secretary M/o Water and Power also directed the General Manager Terbela to complete all type of maintenance of the generation units during the low water season to increase their generation efficiency for the coming months. She also urged them to focus on using modern techniques of regulating the water releases to produce maximum power with less water wastage.

During the visit, Mrs. Nargis Sethi was also briefed on the status of educational institutions under the supervision of WAPDA. She directed improvement in their physical structure and academic standards. She also directed to focus on the girls education in the area.

The Secretary was apprised about the current water flow, storage and power generation at the site. She was apprised that the generation capacity has been maintained at a reasonable level to provide valuable power to the national grid.

Regarding initiation of work on Tarbela-4 project of 1400 MW, the meeting was apprised that it would be started by early next year as all formalities for its financing are at final stage. It is financed by the World Bank and it would be built by employing the state of the art excavators and other high tech machinery. There will be no additional displacement due to the project as it would be built at a site which is redundant since more than two decades. It would also offer large number of employment opportunities to the people of the surrounding areas.

The Secretary also visited the Tarbela Barrage Site and received briefing on the modus operandi of the system. She appreciated the work force working day and night to serve the nation and urged them to increase the level of coordination to enhance the efficiency of the system.