Chairman WAPDA Engr Lt Gen (Retd) Sajjad Ghani on Wednesday visited Mangla Dam Organization and its various components including main dam, Jari dam site and powerhouse.
During the visit, WAPDA Chairman was briefed about the matters relating to Mangla Dam and Mangla Raised Project and powerhouse, said a press release.
Member Power WAPDA Jamil Akhtar, GM MDO, GM MRP, Consultants and Contractors were present on the occasion.
Ghani said WAPDA is implementing Mangla Refurbishment Project with an approved PC-I cost of Rs. 52.224 billion. The Project is being carried out in various phase, wherein eight generating units are to be refurbished. Refurbishment of the first two units has been completed in 2022, while refurbishment of remaining six generating units is likely to be accomplished by year 2027-28 in a phased manner.
He said Mangla Refurbishment Project, on its completion, will enhance generation capacity of the existing Mangla Hydel Power Station from 1000 MW to 1310 MW, means registering an increase of 310 MW. Resultantly, the average annual generation of Mangla Hydel Power Station will also increase from 5 billion units to 6.6 billion units. Chairman Wapda said USAID is providing US$150 million as grant and AFD France is providing Euro 90 million as loan for Mangla Refurbishment Project, while est of the amount is being arranged by WAPDA through loans and from its own resources. He said Mangla Dam has been playing a pivotal role towards socio-economic development of the country, during the last five decades by releasing the stored water for irrigation, mitigation of flood and adding low cost electricity to National Grid. Mangla Dam one of the largest earth & rock filled dam of the world, provided 262.67 billion units of low cost electricity to the National Grid, since its commissioning. Manlga Dam was constructed in 1967 with the live storage capacity of 5.88 MAF, which reduced to 4.6 MAF till 2004 gradually, due to natural phenomenon of sedimentation, he added.—APP
