Construction work on the Tarbela Fifth Extension Hydropower Project has been suspended indefinitely after a protective bund breached on Monday, allowing a large volume of water to enter Tunnel No. 5, officials said.
Haripur Deputy Commissioner Waseem Ahmed visited the site following the incident and confirmed that water had flooded the tunnel after the protective structure gave way.
He said the administration and rescue agencies immediately evacuated all Pakistani and foreign workers from the site and moved them to a safe location. One Pakistani worker was swept away by the incoming water but was rescued by emergency teams. No casualties were reported.
Ahmed said construction and development activities had been halted indefinitely, while an investigation had been launched to establish the cause of the breach. A high-level inquiry will examine whether the incident resulted from a structural weakness or a technical fault.
He added that further decisions regarding the resumption of work would be taken after the inquiry report was completed.
The T-5 extension is a major WAPDA project aimed at adding 1,530 megawatts of electricity to Tarbela Dam’s installed generation capacity through three generating units of 510MW each.
The project, awarded to China’s Power Construction Corporation in May 2021, has an approved cost of $807 million, with financing from the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
Once completed, it is expected to generate approximately 1.347 billion units of electricity annually, increasing Tarbela’s installed capacity from 4,888MW to 6,418MW.
The project has faced repeated delays, with its completion deadline pushed to September 2027. It was also temporarily suspended in August 2025 after rising reservoir levels and increased water inflows affected construction activities.
