By Muhammad Luqman
Pakistan further moved towards its goal of becoming power-outage free country on Wednesday as Golen Gol Hydropower Project has started electricity generation. After the start of power generation, Chitral city located in the extreme north of Pakistan, is now receiving much-needed electricity from the project on trial basis, which is a significant step towards stable supply of electricity to the town and the adjoining areas.
“ Chitral is the first city of Pakistan to get 24×7 power supply. At the moment, it is generating just 36 megawatt electricity . The generation will rise to 108 megawatt level during next two months,” Chairman Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), Lt. General (rtd) Muzammal Hussain.
The Prime Minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will formally inaugurate Golen Gol Hydropower Project during the first week of February. Only the first unit of 36 MW put into operation today which will provide electricity three times more than needs of Chitral City. Surplus energy will be evacuated to the National Grid.
The project has been constructed on Golen Gol – a tributary of River Mastuj – near Chitral. The installed generation capacity of the project is 108 MW with three generating units – each of them having a capacity of 36 MW. The first unit has been completed, while the second and the third unit will be commissioned in March and May 2018 respectively. The project will provide 436 million units of electricity to the National Grid every year. Benefits of the project have been estimated at Rs.3.7 billion per annum.
