Malakand-III Hydropower Project

Malakand-III Hydropower Project was identified after the construction of Auxiliary Tunnel under Swabi SCARP on the Upper Swat Canal System. The Upper Swat Canal System was completed in 1918. It emanates from the Swat River at Amandara Head Works and irrigates 121,400 hectares of land of the Peshawar valley.

A 6 km long canal carries water from Amandara to the foot of Malakand hills. There, the 3.5 km long Benton Tunnel pierces the Malakand hills and passes water into the Dargai Nullah. Utilizing this water, two power plants Jabban and Dargai, each of 20 MW capacity, were set up in 1937 and 1953 respectively each between the outlet of Benton tunnel and the tri-furcator.

Due to increase in irrigation water demand the Amandara Head Works was upgraded under the Swabi SCARP and another auxiliary tunnel, parallel to the existing Benton tunnel was constructed to carry the increased design discharge of 51 cumecs. In order to avail this additional discharge for hydropower, before it is fed into Machai branch, the Malakand-III Hydropower Project having a capacity of 81 MW was conceived. This project was proposed to be operated in conjunction with the two existing power stations of Jabban and Dargai keeping in view the variation in water availability in Swat River.
Malakand-III project was completed in 2008 and interconnected with National Grid through 132 kV Dargai Grid Station.
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