ISLAMABAD (PEN) : Upon a signal at 10 am on February 28th, 2024, Suki Kinari Hydropower Project (“the Project”) in Pakistan, mainly invested by China Gezhouba Group Overseas Investment Co., Ltd. belonging to CEEC, starts reservoir filling successfully. This marks the completion of another significant milestone of the Project, laying a solid foundation for the scheduled power generation target of the Project. This important moment was witnessed by SK Project Company, Owner’s Engineers, the relevant personnel of the Contractor and other construction participants.
The Dam of the Project is an asphalt concrete core-wall rockfill dam with a crest elevation of 2,239.5 meters, a maximum height of 54.5 meters, a crest width of 10 meters, a length of 258 meters, and a total backfill volume of about 1.9 million cubic meters. During construction, SK Project Company efficiently coordinated all construction participants, optimized the design schemes, accelerated the construction period, and achieved the dam capping target on May 2023 as scheduled. After capping, SK Project Company led the relating parties in the commissioning of M&E work, reservoir area slope support and other related work, and finally starts the reservoir filling as scheduled with several months efforts.
The Project is included in the first batch of priority projects list of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which serves as the first step of the “Belt and Road” Initiative. It is currently the largest greenfield hydropower overseas project invested by Chinese enterprise, and has drawn great attention from the Chinese and Pakistan governments and all sectors of society.
So far, the overall construction progress of the Project exceeds 98%. Specifically, a number of key milestones such as dam body filling, headrace tunnel lining, installation of pressure steel lining and installation of units have been completed on schedule, and the power generation target is planned to be achieved in 2024.
The Project is the largest hydropower station invested by CEEC overseas. Upon completion, it can provide 3.212×109 KWH of clean electricity annually, filling 1/5 of Pakistan’s gap in power supply, alleviating severe power shortages, and promoting the high-quality development of local economy and society.
Next step, SK Project Company will continue to thoroughly implement CEEC’s requirements of “building a world-class enterprise”, strengthen scientific management, and ensure the achievement of annual milestones such as water commissioning and project COD through effective measures.
