Altaf Hamid Rao
Lahore/MIRPUR (AJK), (Parliament Times) : In pursuits of early completion of the project, the National Transmission and Despatch Company Limited (NTDC) has set up its Chief Engineer camp office at ±500 kV HVDC Converter Station site in Nowshera along with Grounding Electrode for CASA-1000 Power Project near Azakhel Bala Nowshera in KPK. Managing Director NTDC Engr. Muhammad Ayub inaugurated the NTDC camp office today. He also inspected the ongoing construction work of the project and directed to complete the convertor station on war footing. The project is a part of the cross border power project CASA-1000 which is being executed by Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. He said that the establishment of camp office will help to improve coordination and communication between NTDC and other stakeholders of the project. HVDC Converter Station for CASA-1000 Power Project was handed over to the contractor 3 months ago, which has achieved overall 45 percent progress of Engineering & Design, Procurement of Material and Civil Work. Engr. Muhammad Ayub said that the projects will be completed on fast track to achieve its timeline.
While talking about the CASA-1000 Power Project, he said that 1300 MW clean power will be transmitted from Tajikistan to Pakistan during summer season and will be helpful in maintaining the required voltage level and to meet the increasing load demand of the country. 1270 km long transmission is also under construction. Whereas, NTDC is constructing 113 km long HVDC transmission line from Torkham border to Nowshera Converter Station. The transmission line will be completed by the end of 2022.
He said that as per the contractual completion period, the HVDC Converter Station Project will be completed by August 2024. Both the projects, the transmission line and converter station will be completed with the cost of $ 205 million.
Later, MD NTDC also planted a tree at the aforementioned project as part of ongoing tree plantation campaign started in line with Prime Minister vision “Clean and Green Pakistan”.