By Tahir Ali

 

Chairman WAPDA and PD&SI delegation visit Mohmand Dam. [Photo/WAPDA]  

 

ISLAMABAD, Dec 20 (Gwadar Pro) - Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong on Saturday (December 18) welcomed the recent “fruitful visit” of Chairman WAPDA and the delegation of the National Standing Committee on Planning and Development & Special Initiatives (PD&SI) to the site of Mohmand Dam and Hydropower Project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). China Gezhouba Group of Companies (CGGC) and DESCON are constructing the dam in JV on River Swat.

 

Chairman Standing Committee Junaid Akbar was leading the delegation comprising MNAs namely Saleh Muhammad, Sardar Muhammad Irfan Dogar, Naveed Dero and Syed Agha Rafiullah. WAPDA Chairman Lt Gen Muzammil Hussain (Retd), Mohmand Dam General Manager and Project Director and representatives of the consultants and the contractors were also present on the occasion. The committee had expressed satisfaction over the pace of work. “Mohmand Dam is a significant project to cope with water and energy needs of the country, therefore, on-time completion of the project is all the more important,” said Junaid Akbar.

 

Mohmand Dam is the fifth-highest concrete-face-rock-fill Dam (CFRD) in the world. Construction on as many as 13 sites is simultaneously underway on the project including diversion tunnels, power intake and power waterway, spillway, re-regulation pond, left bank irrigation tunnel, switchyard, powerhouse, main dam abutment, access roads and project colony etc.

 

According to WAPDA’s statement, the first unit of the project will be commissioned in December 2025. It will store about 1.2-million-acre feet (MAF) of water and would help mitigate floods in Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera. Besides supplementing 160,000 acres of existing land, the dam will irrigate about 18,237 acres of new land. Mohmand Dam Power House will generate 800-megawatt hydel electricity, contributing 2.86 billion units of low-cost and environment-friendly hydel electricity annually to the National Grid.