(Xinhua News Agency, Istanbul, October 24, by reporter Ji Wei and Liu Tian) The celebration event for the completion of TBM697 Section of the diversion tunnel of Nehru Tim Jielu Mu Hydropower Station Project was held at the project site in Pakistan-administered Kashmir region on October 23, which marks the official completion of the one-way diversion tunnel and the great progress of the project.
As the biggest hydropower project under construction in Pakistan, the project is built by a joint engineering team of China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC) and China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) and led by CGGC3. It officially broke ground on January 30, 2008.
The project is to build a long tunnel diversion-type hydropower station, namely, to build a dam on Nehru River and make the water run through a diversion tunnel to the generator set 28.6 km away. The diversion tunnel is of crucial importance to the project. The ten-meter-long and two-way parallel tunnel was built with Tunnel Boring Machine. Since other sections were already completed, the completion of the TMB697 Section (left tunnel) also marks the completion of the single-line tunnel of the project. The right tunnel is scheduled to be completed next year, which will bring the construction of the diversion tunnel to an end.
Muzammil Hussain, President of Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority delivered a speech. He said the Pakistani government gives priority to the construction of the Nehru Tim Jielu Mu Hydropower Station in a bid to solve its energy crisis. He believed that the Hydropower Station will help narrow the gap between the power supply and demands and greatly relieve the shortage of energy in Pakistan.
It is reported that the Nehru Tim Jielu Mu Hydropower Station has a total installed capacity of 969 megawatts. The generation set will come into use completely by 2018, with the annual generation capacity of 5.15 billion kilowatt-hours, which will account for 12% of Pakistan's hydro-electricity. Therefore, it will make great contribution to the local economic and social development and the improvement of local people's livelihood.
