The Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) has awarded Technicon Enterprises a Rs.936.29 million (US$12.4 million) civil works contract for the 2nd Rehabilitation of Warsak hydroelectric power station.
General Manager (Hydel) Development Nadeem Iqbal and Chief Executive Officer Iqbal Yunas signed the contract on behalf of WAPDA and Technicon Enterprises respectively. WAPDA Member (Power) Jamil Akhtar and other senior officers of WAPDA were also present on the occasion.
The 2nd rehabilitation is being carried out to recover generation capacity at Warsak – the project has decreased to 193MW from 243MW as a result of ageing electro-mechanical equipment. The new project will upgrade and modernise the old system to achieve another life cycle of 30-40 years.
Warsak was the first ever main hydropower project executed in Pakistan after independence. The first phase of the Warsak Dam and Hydel Power Station was completed in 1960-61 consisting of the dam, irrigation tunnels, four generating units with cumulative capacity of 160MW, switchyard and transmission line.
In the second phase, two more generating units of about 83MW were added in 1980-81 to raise the installed capacity of the power station to 243MW. The first rehabilitation was carried out during 1996-2006 to stabilize civil structure and recover lost generation of about 70MW.
Contract signing. Image courtesy WAPDA
