LAHORE: The civil works of the underground powerhouse and transformers hall of the 969-MW Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project are expected to be completed in October this year as progress on these components of the project stands at 95.5peand99pc,respectively.

This was briefed to Water and Power Development Authority chairman Zafar Mahmood during his visit to the project on Tuesday.

The chairman visited the powerhouse, transformers hall, manifold area and switchyard of the project to review progress of construction work.

Neelum JhelumHydropower Project Chief Executive Officer Engineer Muhammad Zubair, Project Director Nayyar Ala-ud-Din and representatives of the consultants and the contractors were present on the occasion.

During the on-site briefing, the chairman was apprised that subsequent to the completion of civil works of Unit No 3 and 4 of the powerhouse, both units had already been handed over to the electro-mechanical contractor. It was further told that civil works of the switchyard are substantially complete, while electrical and mechanical works will also be completed by October 2016.

The project CEO said that October 2016 is going to be an important month as tunnel boring machine, deployed on the left tunnel, will break through during the said month after completing the excavation work on the left tunnel. Overall progress on the project stands at 80pc.

The construction worl( on all three sites namely C1, C2 and C3 is moving ahead at a good pace. The progress on C1 is 78pe, on C2 is 80pc, while on C3 is 83pc. Out of total 68.6 kilometres, 62-kilometre long tunnels have so far been excavated.

The chairman expressed satisfaction over the progress achieved so far on the project. Appreciating devotion and hard work of the project authorities, he said Wapda is confident to complete the project according to the revised schedule.

As per revised schedule, first generating unit of the project is expected to be completed in July 2017, whereas the remaining three units will come on line by the end of 2017 in various phases.

Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Company is constructing a world class underground power generation facility. The project envisages 90pc construction work under high mountainous overburden. The project, on its completion, will contribute 5.15 billion units of low-cost and environment friendly electricity to the national grid.