State-of-the-art 969 MW-Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project achieved yet another milestone, as its contribution to the National Grid crossed 8 billion mark. The project, satisfactorily meeting the design capacity energy production, achieved this land mark despite the fact that the shelling by India from across the Line of Control during July and October 2019 interrupted the working at the project, which forced evacuation of the Chinese workers from the project site and continue to be afflicted by Covid-19 pandemic. In terms of revenue, Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project has yielded more than Rs. 80 billion of hydel electricity into the National Grid with efficient operation of the project by Neelum Jhelum and WAPDA engineers and staff under tiring conditions.

Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project, one of the engineering marvels, has been constructed in a very difficult mountainous terrain and being 90 percent of the project underground. The project is comprised of a weir (dam), underground water way system of 52-kilometer long tunnels, an underground power house and a switch yard. The project, having four generating units of 242.25 MW capacity each, started electricity generation with commissioning of its first unit in April 2018. The project attained its maximum installed generation of 969 MW on August 14, 2018 with commissioning of its all four units.

It is worth mentioning here that Neelum Jhelum generated upto 1040 MW on April 9, 2019 beyond installed capacity of 969 MW, which reflects the efficiency of its electro-mechanical equipment, the turbines in particular. Now-a-days, the project has been running on full load i.e. 969 MW because the required quantum of water is available due to high-flow season.