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ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif will visit the under construction Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project near Muzaffarabad today (Wednesday).This will be the first visit of Nawaz Sharif since assuming office of the Prime Minister to any under construction power generation project as manifestation of meeting energy crisis as his top priority.
The Neelum NeelumJhelum hydropower plant is part of an under construction run-of-the-river hydroelectric power scheme designed to divert water from the Neelum River to a power station on the Jhelum River. The power station is located in Azad Kashmir, 22 kilometres south of Muzaffarabad and would have an installed capacity of 969MW.
Construction on the project began in 2008 after a Chinese consortium was awarded the construction contract in 2007 and is expected to be completed during the year 2016.Nawaz Sharif during his visit would be accompanied by the Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif and senior officials of Wapda.
It may be pointed out here that the government has allocated huge amount of Rs25 billion for Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the year 2013-2014.
The project was intended to begin in 2002 and be completed in 2008 but this time-frame experienced significant delays.
The cost of the project when it was conceived in 1989 was $167 million but the cost had risen to $2.89 billion. So far 30% construction on the project has been completed.The Chinese consortium CGGC-CMEC (Gezhouba Group and China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation) were awarded the contract to carry out the project.
Sources said the prime minister was also likely to visit site of 425MW Nandipur power generation project shortly and would direct concerned authorities for revival of the project. An amount of Rs10 billion has been fixed for this in the PSDP. The project plant and machinery has been laying at the Karachi port since April 2010 which could not be cleared owing to legal hitches.
Nawaz to visit Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project today - thenews.com.pk