Pakistan PM orders early completion of inquiry into Neelum-Jhelum power plant closure

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered early competition of an inquiry into closure of the 969-megawatt Neelum-Jhelum hydropower plant in Azad Kashmir and asked authorities to make it functional again, Sharif’s office said on Sunday.
Located on River Neelum in Azad Kashmir, the project generates 5.15 billion units of power annually but has faced several problems in recent years.
The project first shut down in 2021 due to a fault in its head race tunnel but was later restored. The same problem was detected in April 2024 and power generation was suspended in May.
Presiding over a meeting in Islamabad, Sharif directed officials to immediately complete the investigation report regarding the recent shutdown.
“The Prime Minister issued directives to identify those responsible for the defects in the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project and take strict action against them,” Sharif’s office said.
“The Prime Minister directed to urgently form a committee regarding reactivation of Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project.”
The participants of the meeting were informed that the closure of the project was causing a huge loss to the national exchequer.
Geophysical and seismic factors were ignored in the construction of the Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project and adequate concrete lining of head race tunnel was not done, according to officials.
A third-party validation of project was not done well in time and the place where the current fault occurred is the rock burst zone.
Sharif said “criminal negligence” was committed by not doing third party validation of the project.
In May, Sharif had lamented that $5 billion was spent on the project despite its initial cost being estimated at $40 million, saying it was “unfortunate” that the project was still facing technical issues.
The prime minister had described the Neelum-Jhelum project as one of “national significance” in the power sector and saying it must remain functional.