Karot Hydroelectric Power Station:towards a stable supply of electricity in Pakistan

《一带一路报道》记者 李卉嫔

7月末的巴基斯坦进入了雨季。清晨，位于旁遮普省的卡洛特水电站项目营地上空黑云压顶，暴雨如注。即使是这样恶劣的天气，水电站建设现场仍然是一片繁忙的景象。主厂房正处在紧张的施工阶段，中国水利水电第七工程局有限公司（以下简称“水电七局”）巴基斯坦卡洛特水电站项目部的工人们搭起雨篷，正在紧张地浇筑混凝土。浇灌车轰隆作响，工程车辆往来穿梭。从厂房交通隧洞进到内部，一个直径十数米的巨大圆环格外引人注目，这是未来发电的核心组件之一——水轮机蜗壳座环，它的成功安装也是发电站机电部分开始安装的重要标志。

At the end of July, Pakistan entered into the rainy season. In the early morning, the resident of Karot Hydroelectric Power Station Project in Punjab Province witnessed a storm of rain falling from thick dark clouds. Despite such bad weather, the construction site still presented a scenario of furious productivity. The main plant was under intense construction, where workers of Karot Hydroelectric Power Station Project from Sinohydro Bureau 7 Co. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Sinohydro Bureau 7) were busy with concrete placement after putting up awnings. As the concrete-mobiles were clattering, the construction vehicles crisscrossed at the site. As we walked from the traffic tunnel to the inside of the plant, a huge ring with a diameter of ten-plus meters was particularly eye-catching, which was one of the core components of future power generation--the stay ring and spiral casing of hydraulic turbine. Its successful installation is also an important symbol for the installation of the electromechanical part of the power station.

水电站建设情况

吉拉姆河流经卡洛特桥上游的拐角处，厂房就建在这里一座被挖开山体100多米深的地方，从高空俯瞰，坝址所在处为吉拉姆河“几”字形河湾的头部位置，是建设水电站的黄金位置，能极大地缩减成本、降低施工难度。旁遮普（Punjab）意为“5条河”，而吉拉姆河是5河中最长的河流，混着泥沙的土黄色河水奔涌不息，从两条山脉间穿越而过，见证了水电七局人在这里奋斗的1000多个日日夜夜。

The Jehlum River passes through the corner of the upper reaches of the Karot Bridge, where the plants were built more than 100 meters deep in a mountain that had been excavated. If we look down from high altitudes, the dam site is located at the top of the “Ω” shaped Jehlum river, which is the golden position for the construction of the hydroelectric power station, thus greatly reducing the costs and the construction difficulties. The word Punjab refers to “five rivers”, of which the Jehlum River is the longest river. The turbid river mixed with mud rushed through the mountains and witnessed the 1,000 plus days and nights that the workers of Sinohydro Bureau 7 have spent here.

卡洛特水电站由三峡集团投资建设，总投资17.4亿美元，总装机容量720兆瓦，年发电量32.1亿度，投产后将满足300万人的用电需求，是中巴经济走廊框架下投资建设的首个水电站项目，也是巴基斯坦首个完全使用中国技术和中国标准建设的水电投资项目。这个经过了7年反复调研、勘察的水电站，于2015年12月奠基宣布正式开工建设，计划2021年3月实现并网发电。作为项目参建方之一，水电七局主要负责导流洞和厂房的建设。

The Karot Hydroelectric power Station is invested and constructed by the Three Gorges Corporation with a total investment of USD 1.74 billion, which has a total installed capacity of 720 megawatts and generates 3.21 billion kWh of electricity every year. Once the project is put into operation, it will meet the electricity demand of 3 million people. It is the first hydroelectric power station project invested under the framework of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, as well as the first hydroelectric power investment project in Pakistan that uses Chinese technologies and Chinese standards. This hydroelectric power project, which had been repeatedly investigated and surveyed for 7 years, broke ground and started construction officially in December 2015. It was originally planned to realize grid-connected power generation in March 2021. As one of the project participants, the Sinohydro Bureau 7 is mainly responsible for the construction of diversion tunnels and factories.

迎难而上 确保如期交卷

在厂房建设现场，记者见到了水电七局卡洛特水电站项目部副总工程师何洲海，“刚来时，这里全是山脉，我们挖了300多万土方出来，才形成现在的主厂房所在地。”何洲海回忆道，7月-9月是巴基斯坦的雨季，那时几乎天天下雨，道路被雨水泥泞阻断，开挖车辆无法到达施工点，工程进展尤为缓慢。而4月-6月是巴基斯坦最热的季节，气温高达50摄氏度，现场作业是个巨大的考验。

At the construction site of the plant, the reporter saw He Zhouhai, deputy chief engineer of the Karot Hydroelectric Power Station Project from Sinohydro Bureau 7 Co. Ltd. “When we first arrived, it was all mountain ranges here. We dug more than 3 million cubic meters of earthwork before forming the current main plant location”. He Zhouhai recalled that it was the rainy season in Pakistan from July to September when it rained almost every day. The road would be blocked by rain cement, so the excavation vehicles could not reach the construction site, making it extremely hard for the project to make progress. April-June was the hottest season in Pakistan, with temperatures as high as 50 degrees Celsius when fieldwork became a huge test.

而对水电七局人来说，困难还远不止这些。要在一个以欧美标准为主的国家建成第一个中国标准的水电站，在当地找到满足中国标准要求的高质量材料就不是那么简单。

For the workers of Sinohydro Bureau 7, the difficulties were far more than that. To build the first hydroelectric power station with the first Chinese standards in a country dominated by European and American standards, it is not so easy to find high-quality materials that meet the requirement of the Chinese standards in the local area.

“我们用了一年多时间，才在当地找到能为我们生产中国标准材料的厂家。”何洲海告诉记者，开始，在发现本地材料不符合建设标准时，他们考虑从国内采购材料，但因征收关税后，价格要比国内翻一番，这将远远超出合同预算。不仅如此，当地人时间观念薄弱，办事拖拉，供货常常被拖延，加之当地工人流动性大、随意性强，这对当地员工占70%以上、土方开挖阶段甚至高达90%以上的项目来说，无疑是一个很大的挑战。

“It took us more than a year to find a local manufacturer that could produce the materials with Chinese standard for us.” He Zhouhai told reporters that at the beginning, when they found that local materials failed to meet the construction standards, they considered purchasing materials from China. But the price would be doubled that of China due to the tariffs, which would far exceed the contract budget. In addition, the local people’s time concept was so weak that delay in handling matters led to delay in providing supply, compounded by highly mobile local workers who often did things arbitrarily. It was undoubtedly a big challenge for such a project where local employees made up 70% of the total workers and even more than 90% in the earthwork excavation.

作业队队长黄忠也表示，在海外做工程从来不是一件容易的事，回想上一个项目——高摩赞水电站，他感觉自己简直在生死边缘走了一遭，至今想来还后怕不已。高摩赞位于临近巴基斯坦与阿富汗边界，因被绑架的两名中国工程师牺牲了一名后被迫中断了两年，即使后来巴方派了边防军保护，也有几名当地员工曾被绑架过。他回忆说，当时甚至有一枚炮弹在他们的休息营地炸开。

Huang Zhong, the leader of the operation team, also said that it was never an easy task to do engineering abroad. When he recalled the last project, Gomal Zam Hydroelectric Power Station, he still felt that he had just walked on the edge of life and death with a panic fear. Gomal Zam is located near the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The project was interrupted for two years as two Chinese engineers were kidnapped and one of them was killed. Even after the Pakistani side sent border guards to protect them, several local employees were once kidnapped. He recalled that there was even a shell that exploded in their rest camp at that time.

为保证卡洛特水电站项目按照计划进行，水电七局的工程师们不断优化调整施工方案，加强与巴方员工的沟通交流，项目建设逐渐走向正轨。项目部经理助理兼工程管理部主任任志民告诉记者，与国内干工程不同的是，这里的项目设计方案随时可能因为施工环境的变化而作出调整，施工方必须与设计方一直保持密切沟通协调，减少图纸修改和再审批环节时间。

In order to ensure that the Karot Hydropower Project could be carried out according to the plan, the engineers of Sinohydro Bureau 7 kept optimizing and adjusting the construction plans and strengthening communication with the Pakistani employees, placing the project construction on the right track. Ren Zhimin, Assistant Manager of the Project Department and Director of the Engineering Management Department, told the reporter that the project design plan here might be adjusted at any time due to changes in the construction environment, which was different from the domestic projects. The construction party must maintain close communication and coordination with the design side in order to reduce the time for modification and re-approval of drawings.

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国内统一连续出版物号：CN51-1788/F

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