LAHORE: Chairman WAPDA Lt Gen Muzammil Hussain (retd) has said that the first unit of Mohmand Dam will be commissioned in December 2025.

He was briefing a delegation of National Assembly Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Wednesday during its visit to Mohmand Dam Project.

The Mohmand Dam General Manager and Project Director, representatives of the consultants and the contractors were also present on the occasion.

He thanked the delegation for taking their time out to visit Mohmand Dam, adding that their visit to the project reflects their support and interest for harnessing the water resources for socio-economic development of the country.

The delegation was briefed that Mohmand Dam is the fifth highest concrete-face-rock-fill Dam (CFRD) in the world. The construction work on 13 sites is simultaneously underway on the project.

These sites include diversion tunnels, power intake and power waterway, spillway, re-regulation pond, left bank irrigation tunnel, switchyard, power house, main dam abutment, access roads and project colony etc.

This is a good omen for the project at a time when the whole world is adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, it was further briefed.

The delegation was informed that the dam will store about 1.2 million acre feet (MAF) of water and help mitigate floods in Peshawar, Charsadda and Naushera. Besides supplementing 160,000 acres of existing land, about 18,237 acres of new land will also be irrigated.

The Mohmand Dam Power House will generate 800 megawatt (MW) hydel electricity, contributing 2.86 billion units of low-cost and environment-friendly hydel electricity annually to the national grid. In addition, 300 million gallons water per day will also be provided to Peshawar for drinking purpose. Annual benefits of the project have been estimated at Rs. 51.6 billion.

It was further briefed that a hefty amount of Rs. 4.5 billion will be spent on Confidence Building Measures (CBM) in the project area for socio-economic development of the locals.

Chairman of the Committee Junaid Akbar said that the 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. He directed the WAPDA to make it sure that the project is completed in accordance with the timelines.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021