88 per cent work on 720MW Karot hydropower project completed
Around 88 per cent work on 720MW Karot hydropower project has already been completed and this important project under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will be ready in April 2022.
Sources told APP here that the project was being developed on a Build-Own-Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis at an estimated cost of $1.98bn including a development cost of $1.698bn and interest during construction of $243 million by Karot Power Company Private Ltd.
The Karot Power Company was comprising of M/s Three Gorges South Asia Investment Ltd (TGSAIL) and Associated Technologies (Pvt) Ltd of Pakistan, they said.
The power project – the first of its kind under the CPEC – was being built on the River Jhelum, they said.
The sources said the project was being constructed on a concrete gravity of 91 meters high dam with a crest length of 320 meters. The dam’s reservoir would be approximately 152m cubic metres in volume, with a length of 27 kilometres, they said.
They said project would bring $ 1.780 billion investment besides provision of employment opportunities to 5000 local people of the area.
Upon its completion, the 720 MW Karot hydropower project would supply 3.249 billion units per annum clean electricity to the national grid.
It is pertinent to mention here that the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority had already approved the project’s leveling tariff at 7.57 cents per unit for 30 years at an exchange rate of Rs 101.6 per US dollar.