LAHORE: The international donors pledged an initial financial assistance amounting to $328 million for construction of 969MW Neelum-Jhelum hydroelectric project.

This announcement was made in a meeting attended by the delegates of Islamic Development Bank, Saudi Fund for Development, Kuwait Fund for Development and Abu Dhabi Fund for Development.

Islamic Development Bank representative Farrukh Muhammad said that the financial assistance is meant for the first three lots of the contract of Neelum-Jhelum hydroelectric project. Terming the project an important one, he assured that more funding would be made available as the project proceeds further.

According to WAPDA spokesman, speaking on the occasion, WAPDA Chairman Shakil Durrani said that Neelum-Jhelum is an environment friendly project with 26 per cent Economic Internal Rate of Returns (EIRR). He said that the project would help increase hydel ratio in the overall power generation by contributing more than 5 billion cheap electricity units annually to the national grid.

The chairman expected that the project would be completed ahead of schedule, as a bonus clause pertaining to early completion of the project has been introduced in the contract.