In this regard, all concerned officials, both at the Ministry, Water and Power Development Authority and Project management of Tarbela 4 have been asked to take extra measures and utilize their energies to start work on the project by early next year, official sources in the Ministry of Water and Power said here on Friday.

It is financed by the World Bank and it would be built by employing the state of the art excavators and other high tech machinery.

There will be no additional displacement due to the project as it would be built at a site which is redundant since more than two decades.

It would also offer large number of employment opportunities to the people of the surrounding areas.

"After the successful operation of energy conservation drive and power distribution management phases, time has come when medium and long term measures are taken to increase the affordable hydel generation capacity of the country", Federal Secretary, Ministry of Water and Power, Mrs. Nargis Sethi said while talking to the officials during her recent visit to the project site.

She emphasized the authorities concerned with hydel generation to start survey of other hydel projects and identify additional power generation prospects.

This, she said would add additional mega watts to the national grid at affordable cost.

The Secretary also directed the General Manager Terbela to complete all type maintenance of the generation units during the low water season to increase their generation efficiency for the coming months.

She also urged them to focus on using modern techniques of regulating the water releases to produce maximum power with less water wastage.

The Secretary was apprised about the current water flow, storage and power generation at the site.

She was informed that the generation capacity has been maintained at a reasonable level to provide valuable power to the national grid.