On the 25/09/2021 a ceremony was held to celebrate the third breakthrough of headrace tunnel for the 884 MW Suki Kinari Hydropower Project.

The project  has been under construction since 2017 in Pakistan and is located  on the Kunhar river in the Kaghan valley of Mansehra District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.  

The Project is listed among the highest priority Early Harvest Projects within the strategic CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor).  

It is a diversion-type run-off-river project which poses minimal environmental and social impacts and due to its high head of 922.7 m and relatively short intake structure & reservoir, it is considered one of the most cost-effective hydropower schemes in the region.  

The dam site is 10 km upstream of Kaghan town. To start the construction of the main dam, Kunhar River was diverted through the bottom outlets of double layer spillway in April, 2021.

Water from the reservoir will be diverted through the intake structure to run through 23.2 km-long concrete-lined headrace tunnel, with an excavation diameter of 7.3m. The tunnel is crossing through a relatively high mountainous terrain and several fault zones. Due to the length of the headrace tunnel, it needed eight access adits which were built using the drill & blast method.

Two headrace tunnel sections broke through in the first quarter of 2021 and the concrete lining of these tunnels has started, overall more than 73% excavation has been completed so far.   

The Government of Pakistan has agreed to off-take electricity from the Suki Kinari project, under a 30-year power purchase agreement. The project is being financed through a combination of debt and equity at a ratio of 75:25 - the Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank of China) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China are the debt providers.  

China Gezhouba Group was awarded the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for the hydropower project and Mott MacDonald prepared the bankable feasibility study for the project.  For further information please visit  http://www.cggc.ceec.net.cn/. 39/21.