Report by Engineering Post
Pakistan’s quite-strategically located 969 MW Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project will remain shut, out of production for another two years at least.
It was an engineering marvel as a matter of fact with 90 percent of it being underground in the high mountains area. It has three main components a dam, waterway system, comprising 50 kilometers long tunnels and an underground powerhouse. The continued extended shutdown due to structural damage to the underground tunnel since May 2024 was not only causing significant financial losses to the national exchequer but also depriving the consumers of low cost electricity. The major hydropower project was awarded way back in July 2007, completed in an escalated period of ten years at a cost of Rs 500 billion and was commissioned in August 2018 with three 323 ME+W units being put on the national grid one after the other.
