First Projects Silk Road Fund Invested in Full Swing

China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG) has been devoted to the construction of the Belt and Road since the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed in 2013.

Construction of the Pakistan Karot Hydropower project, one of the first Silk Road Fund-invested projects and the first hydropower station project along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, started on Dec 1, 2016 and has been in full swing ever since.

A design image of the Karot Hydropower project [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

The dam

The Karot Hydropower Plant Dam is a bituminous core-wall rockfill dam consisting of a core-wall, a transition layer, two rock piles, a drainage system and revetments of the upstream and downstream.

To date, a total of 600,400 cubic meters of the dam have been completed and 6,377 cubic meters of the base of the core-wall have been built, which means that 90 percent of the foundation excavation has been done.

In addition, the construction of the dam's diaphragm wall has been completed; the cofferdam of the upstream is 430.5 meters high and that of the downstream is 407 meters.

To date, construction of the dam is about 12 percent finished.

About 12 percent of the construction of the dam has been completed. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

The spillway

The spillway of the Karot Hydropower Plant project consists of the intake canal, a control section, the discharge chute and a flip bucket and a downstream energy dissipation system.

The excavation of the control section is currently completed and 37.64 percent of the entire spillway has been built.

The restoration bridge

The 330-meter long and 10-meter wide bridge will be built about 610 meters downstream of the former Karot Bridge.

The bridge, which will have a prestressed concrete rigid frame, is about 70 percent completed.

The diversion tunnel

The hydropower plant relies on the method of blocking off the riverbed and discharging water through a diversion tunnel to generate power.

The side slops of at the entrance and the exit of the tunnel and the intake tower have been completed, as has barrel construction.

The diversion and generating system

The main diversion and power generating system includes the water intakes, the diversion tunnel, the factory, the booster station and so on.

To date, the high-wall and foundation of the plant has been excavated and the pouring of the concrete of the first and second phase of the booster station's installation room has been done.

Construction of Generator No 1, 2, 3 and 4 is still underway and the four diversion tunnels have been excavated.

The engineering team is now working on the intake tower.

The engineering team is now working on the intake tower. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Li Shuling)