May 25, 2014
Karora Hydropower Project has been conceived as a run-of-river scheme on Khan Khwar which is right tributary of Indus River in Shangla district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Project is nearly 25 km from Besham accessible through Besham-Mingora road while 225 km from Islamabad.
The feasibility study of Karora Hydropower Project was completed in August 2011 later on the construction of the project started in December 2014. The under construction weir site is located on Khan Khwar near village Kuz Kana while power house is proposed near Marine village 5.2 Km downstream of the weir site. The proposed scheme comprises diversion weir with lateral intake, conveyance box channel, leading the water to sand trap from where sand free water enters into headrace tunnel. The under construction headrace tunnel is designed as a horse shoe shape of diameter 2.6m concrete lined. The tunnel is 2954m long and has a slope of 1 in 250.
At the end of tunnel a surge shaft of 8m diameter is provided which is connected to 1.8m diameter and 408m long penstock. At the end of penstock the inlet valves of each (of the two) Horizontal Francis turbine with installed capacity of 6.24MW (Q=4.875 m3/sec, Head=142m) each turbine is connected to a generator of 6.94MVA capacity. The annual energy= 71.39Gwh and plant factor= 69.06%. The power will be evacuated through 132KV-10 Km transmission line and interconnected at Besham Qilla.
The project is sponsored by the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through 10% provincial ADP and 90% through Hydel Development Fund/Foreign Investment. The project will add the 11.80MW electric power in national grid.
