BCJV inefficiency delaying 6,000MW Bunji Project

By SALMAN ABDUHOO

LAHORE – While the country is facing severe power crisis, the Bunji Hydropower Project in Gilgit with generation capacity of 6,000 megawatt – 2,500 more megawatt than the estimated capacity of Kalabagh – is being put on back burner for at least three years due to the unprofessional and inefficient consultants and criminal negligence of the Hydro Planning Chief, exacting heavy price from the already decrepit masses, The Nation learnt reliably on Thursday.

Due to this delay, the consultant company, after 16 months when the contract period will expire on May 2010, will require an extension of further three years to accomplish additional work, costing the government another Rs 687 million apart from Rs 687 million spent already as a consultancy fee.

Sources in the Ministry of Water and Power disclosed to The Nation that the consultant company, the Bunji Consultants Joint Venture (BCJV), with the lead firm Mott MacDonald Limited (MML), UK has been left with only 16 months’ time while all work, including excavation of seven adits (tunnel through mountains), will take at least four years on the condition that work is initiated from today.

Sources pointed out that the excavation of seven adits including one adit of 1.6 km long, would take around two years and three months (according to their estimate). The calculations make it clear that the project will be late by 3 years.

Courtesy: The Nation