TARBELA:HPP Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) Friday awarded a USD241 million contract to Electrical & Mechanical (E&M ) works of Tarbela 5th Extension Hydropower Project.
The contract was awarded to a joint venture comprising Harbin Electric International Company and Harbin Electric Machinery Company (HEIC-HEMC) through international competitive bidding.
The E&M contract was signed by Tarbela 5th Extension Hydropower Project Director (PD) Muhammad Azam Joya and HEIC-HEMC Vice President Zhang Yu Long on behalf of their organizations.
WAPDA Chairman Lt Gen Muzammil Hussain (Retd), WAPDA Member Finance Naveed Asghar, Member Water Abdul Zahir Khan Durrani, Managing Director (Administration) Khalid Saleem, WAPDA Secretary Fakharuzzaman Ali Cheema, General Managers concerned and representatives of the Consultants also attended the ceremony.
It is worth mentioning that WAPDA has already awarded the contract for the civil works of the project in May. Speaking on the occasion, the Chairman said that Tarbela5th Extension was yet another WAPDA project to meet the energy needs of the country with low-cost and environment-friendly hydel electricity, adding that WAPDA was committed to complete this vital project in accordance with the timelines.
Referring to the WAPDA’s strategy for improving the water situation and increasing the share of hydel electricity in the national grid, he said that WAPDA was constructing 10 mega projects in water and hydropower sectors to meet rapidly increasing requirements of water and electricity in the country.
These projects were scheduled to be completed from 2023 to 2028-29. In addition to enhancing gross water storage capacity by 11.7 million acre-feet (MAF), WAPDA projects would also double the installed hydel power generation capacity from 9406 MW to 20591 MW. Likewise, WAPDA’s contribution of green and clean hydel electricity to the national grid would also increase from the existing 37 billion units to more than 81 billion units per annum.
Tarbela 5th Extension Hydropower Project was being constructed on Tunnel No. 5 of Tarbela Dam with an approved PC-I of US$ 807 million. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) of World Bank is providing US$ 390 million, while Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to the tune of US$ 300 million. The cumulative generation capacity of the project stands at 1530 MW with three generating units of 510 MW each.
The project, scheduled to start electricity generation by mid-2024, would provide 1.347 billion units of low-cost hydel electricity to the National Grid on average every year.
With the completion of the Tarbela 5thExtension Hydropower Project, installed capacity at Tarbela Dam would rise from 4888 MW to 6418 MW.