Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority has reached a significant milestone in the construction of the 969-MW Neelum Jhelum hydropower plant with the completion of the project’s left intake tunnel.
The China Gezhouba Group Corp. began work on the 10.4 km-long tunnel in January 2013, simultaneously digging with traditional blasting and drilling methods from the upstream side and a tunnel boring machine from the downstream side.
Similar work is also being performed on the project’s other side, with completion of Neelum Jhelum‘s right tunnel expected in the first quarter of next year. WAPDA officials said the right tunnel’s completion puts the facility on schedule to begin generating power in early 2018.
HydroWorld.com reported in June that a consortium of 16 banks awarded more than US$1.474 billion to the Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Co. Ltd. to continue the development of the project project.
The run-of-river project is being developed by Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority using water diverted from the Neelum River in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Construction of the plant is about 80% complete, according to credit rating company JCR-VIS, which gave the sukuk a AAA preliminary rating.
Neelum Jhelum has sparked controversy throughout its development — most notably due to conditions established between Pakistan and India by the 1960 Indus Water Treaty. With India developing its 330-MW Kishenganga project on the same waterway, the agreement dictates that whichever country completes its plant first will have priority rights to the river.
Neelum Jhelum’s skyrocketing costs also caused previous investors — including the Islamic Development Bank, Kuwait Fund for Development, Saudi Find for Development and Opec Development Fund — to withdraw more than $430 million in collective loans last year.
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