Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Offline Till 2028, Wapda Confirms

Neelum Jhelum – (Staff Reporter/Web Desk) – Neelum Jhelum Hydropower offline crisis is set to continue for almost four more years, as officials confirmed the plant will not restart before March 2028.

This means the Neelum Jhelum project 2028 timeline now stretches the shutdown to nearly four full years, one of the longest outages in Pakistan’s energy history.

Wapda Chairman Lt-Gen (retd) Muhammad Saeed shared this update during a Senate Standing Committee on Water Resources meeting. He said repair work is currently underway.

The 969-megawatt plant has remained shut since May 2024. A sudden rock burst caused serious damage to its headrace tunnel, halting operations completely.

This Neelum Jhelum Hydropower offline 2028 delay is hurting ordinary electricity users the most. They continue paying the NJ surcharge on their monthly bills.

Yet they are not receiving any benefit from this cheap power source. Instead, costlier thermal electricity is being used to fill the gap.

Senators at the meeting raised serious concerns. They questioned whether the tunnel failure happened purely due to geology, or if human errors played a role too.

Lawmakers demanded a transparent investigation. They said anyone found responsible for poor planning or weak construction must be held accountable.

The project was originally awarded back in July 2007. It took nearly a decade to build and finally started operating in August 2018.

Its total cost reached around Rs500 billion, which was close to $4.7 billion at that time’s exchange rate. It remains one of Pakistan’s costliest energy projects.

Officials also revealed worrying details about Pakistan’s water storage capacity. The country has not built a major dam since Tarbela and Mangla decades ago.

In comparison, lawmakers noted that India has built around 5,000 dams. This gap has raised fresh concerns about long-term water security.

The committee also reviewed a satellite monitoring briefing by Suparco. Members felt the presentation lacked clear data and did not fully answer their questions.

A new Dam Safety Council Bill was also discussed. It has been prepared with support from the Asian Development Bank to improve safety oversight.

Wapda further updated the committee on the Nai Gaj Dam project. Legal issues remain unresolved after a contractor allegedly used a fake bank guarantee.

This dispute has already caused losses of nearly Rs23 billion. Once finished, the dam is expected to protect Dadu and Sehwan from flooding.

It will also help irrigate close to 28,000 acres of farmland once completed.

Officials shared that Wapda currently supplies electricity at an average rate of Rs3.83 per unit. The authority produces about 32 billion units yearly.

As the Neelum Jhelum Hydropower offline situation drags on, pressure continues building on Pakistan’s power sector and its already strained financial position.