On our very first evening we went to see the dam. After admiring its grandeur we were taken to see the main spillways and after that power house. This is the heart of the hydro power generation of Pakistan. At its peak output Tarbela provides 3700 megawatts of power to the national grid. One more Tarbela and our power shortage could be over.
The power house is located in a huge hall below the wall of the main dam. The wall is so high it dwarfs the power station building. Once inside we realised its immense size. The generators were working and we saw the controls and myriads of gauges and instrumentation.
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| Mr. Rashid Mahmood, Ibrar & Mr. Fayyaz Data Control Officer with owner of Abasin Hotel, at Nelab Town, Tarbela Dam |
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| Loan view of Wapda Guest House, Tarbela Dam |
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| Another Loan view of Wapda Guest House, Tarbela Dam |
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| View of Tarbela Lake from Abasin Hotel, Tarbela Dam |
It was more like a science fiction movie - the immense generators housed in their deep berths being rotated by hundreds of thousands of tons of water in subterranean channels, with just a smooth hum. I felt the power of the thousands of watts of electricity being generated and sent off to distant parts of our country to light up our homes.
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| Special Thanks to Mr. Aslam Nasir, Mr. Hazrat Umar GM Tarbela & Pro2GM Mr. Javed. |
The place was clean, well lit and empty of any hustle-bustle. No maintenance engineers running around trying to fix blocked pipes, no oil slicks on the floor, no alarm bells going off, there was nobody around - just me and my friends and our guides. We went down two sets of stairs and saw the various stages of the generator sets. We realized that the whole thing was so well planned and built that it was running without any major breakdowns since 1973 when it was commissioned. It was impressive to see a 100-foot high generator, made out of hundreds of tons of steel, rotating at 1300 RPM without a sound! I cannot maintain a bicycle so that its wheels don't squeak - yet the 40-year old gensets were humming smoothly. Surely they were well maintained!
- See more at: http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta3/tft/article.php?issue=20120525&page=26#sthash.8gD0ddly.dpuf
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