The construction cost of Neelum-Jhelum Hydro Power Project has been increased by 378 percent, from Rs84.502 billion in February 2002 to Rs404.321 billion till December 2015.
Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif informed this to the National Assembly on Friday during the Question-Hour. The minister said that consultants were engaged for the project in 2008, who as a part of their agreement reviewed the whole design of the project. After reviewing the design, consultants recommended numerous changes in design on the basis of new seismic parameters dictated by devastating earthquake in 2005.
The minister elaborated some other reasons behind the cost escalation of the project as well which include change in price level, additional consultancy cost, shifting of power house location and shifting of dam location.
Originally, the completion date of Neelum-Jhelum Hydro Power Project was October 2015. As per revised schedule incorporated in 2nd revised PC-I approved by ECNEC in July 2013, the completion date was revised to November, 2016 due to the following reasons:
Land acquisition for the project was to be made by the Government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, which was delayed.
Lack of un-interrupted and quality power supply hindered the physical progress of works of all three project-sites.
The minister said that as a result of these changes, the scope of work as well as cost of the project has significantly increased. Due to increase in scope of work, cost and other reasons, it was not possible for the contractor to complete the work within the scheduled period ie up to October, 2015.
The completion date of the project has been extended up to November 2016. Furthermore, NJHPP''s HRT, which is being excavated by Tunnel Boring Machines, faced severe rock bursts and HRT under Jhelum River faced very high water ingress. These two technical challenges resulted in slow progress of excavation in the aforesaid portions of the HRT. The expected completion date of the NJHPP as per latest 3rd revised PC-I is July 2017, he added. The House was also informed that Ministry for Water and Power has a total of outstanding amount of dues Rs152,780681,408 pending against different government departments. The government receivables as on December 2015 from LESCO are Rs4,793,468,717, GEPCO owes to the government Rs6,841,226,884, FESCO Rs108,615,075, IESCO Rs43,026,573,487, MEPCO Rs1,274,469,190, PESCO Rs13,934,417,464, HESCO Rs36,054,871,355, SEPCO Rs40,789,934,668, QESCO Rs4,974,882,700 and TESCO Rs1,199,452,014.
To another question, Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali sought support of the provinces and lawmakers to build dams including Akhori as some 29 million acres feet water flows down the stream to sea every year. He said around 40 MAF could be stored in the proposed Kalabagh, Akhori and other dams but unfortunately consensus among the provinces could not be build on these dams so far.
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