In early June, more than 3,200 builders were working intensely at the Karot site in the sweltering heat on the banks of the Giram River, 55 kilometers from Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, as the ground temperature approached 50 degrees Celsius.
Among the hydropower projects in Pakistan, the Karot Hydropower Station occupies several firsts – it is not only the first hydropower investment project in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, but also the first project invested by the Silk Road Fund after its establishment.
All the participants in the Karot project feel a heavy responsibility, from the realization of safety last year to the successful hoisting of the first rotor in May this year, and the full entry into the mechanical and electrical installation stage, all aspects must strictly control epidemic prevention, quality and safety, which is self-evident.
On May 12 this year, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan posted on his personal social media to praise the progress made in the construction of the project. Behind this impressive achievement, the sweat and painstaking efforts of all the builders of the Karot project are condensed.
▲ On May 2, 2021, the first rotor hoist of the Karot Hydropower Station was successfully installed
Perseverance and retrograde under the epidemic:
"Coming, is to keep the bottom line of epidemic prevention and control,
We must do a good job! ”
At the beginning of 2020, a sudden outbreak of COVID-19 spread around the world, bringing unprecedented challenges to the Karot project. The Three Gorges Group has drawn elite troops and strong generals from the domestic frontline and established the Karot Project Construction Command (hereinafter referred to as the Command) to coordinate all parties involved in the construction and overcome the difficulties of the times. At present, these retrograde Chinese builders are a powerful engine for the corridor project to move forward.
"Coming here is to keep the bottom line of epidemic prevention and control, that is, to do a good job in the project!" This was a promise made by the command before the expedition.
Karot is a key project of the "Belt and Road" construction, with up to 5,500 people entering the scene during the peak period, and the responsibility for epidemic prevention and control is heavy. As soon as the command headquarters arrived at the scene, the first thing was to adjust the strategy of personnel entry and exit, revise and improve the project epidemic prevention and control plan, and refine and implement the epidemic prevention and control work in all links and aspects.
At the juncture of tight epidemic prevention and control, the domestic coordination group of the Three Gorges Group gave timely guidance and support, and Zhang Jun, deputy general manager of the Three Gorges South Asia, actively contacted Chinese-funded enterprises in Pakistan and vigorously coordinated material reserves, providing a strong logistical support for epidemic prevention and control.
"The first is to 'close the entrance' to the good personnel. Personnel entering the venue must strictly perform the prior approval procedures. After arriving at the scene, enter the designated isolation point in the field for 14 days of isolation and conduct nucleic acid testing on a regular basis. A further 14 days of buffer observation are performed after isolation is completed. Wang Minsheng, general manager of The Karot Project Company, said.
▲The new isolation point of the project was built in September 2020
At the same time, the project has established professional killing points outside the camp to disinfect the materials needed for daily life and production to ensure the health and safety of the materials entering the site.
In order to gather good personnel, the project carried out grid management of the camp to achieve accurate prevention and control. The whole camp is divided into several epidemic prevention areas, each floor of the buildings in the area is a large grid, and each floor is set up into a number of small grids according to the type of work of the team, each grid is equipped with independent toilets, canteens, showers, etc., and each area is equipped with corresponding staff.
"So far, we have revised six versions of the epidemic prevention and control plan, and made an easy-to-understand small manual, translated into English and Urdu, and continuously strengthened the training and publicity of employees, so that employees can develop the habit of personal self-protection." Hou Jiangang, deputy general manager of the Three Gorges Development Corporation, said so.
At the project site, epidemic prevention signs in three languages of Chinese, English and Urdu can be seen everywhere, and the workers are equipped with masks, hard hats, reflective vests, labor protection shoes and other equipment. Each team is equipped with hand sanitizer, disinfectant, masks and other supplies at its own grid points. Each driver consciously carries masks, disinfectants and other materials with him, and carries out disinfection and protection in a timely manner.
Through the efforts of all the participants in the construction, the epidemic situation at the Karot project site has been controlled and controlled.
Integrate resources to ensure project nodes:
"Let the local area enjoy the benefits of power generation as soon as possible!"
Under the epidemic situation, in the face of unfavorable factors such as insufficient personnel, delayed equipment supply, and unstable supply of raw materials, the Karot Command has efficiently integrated resources, established a daily coordination and communication mechanism, steadily promoted flood control, engineering construction, power production, power delivery and other work, and strived to achieve "double victory" in epidemic prevention and control and project construction, injecting strong impetus into Pakistan's economic recovery.
▲ In October 2020, the last warehouse of Unit 4 of the Karot Project was poured in the pre-warehouse.
The command coordinates the project company, the owner engineer, the design, construction, mechanical and electrical and other participating units, studies and formulates the project adjustment schedule, and actively communicates with the Pakistani power department to jointly determine the project nodes and provide guidance for the implementation of the follow-up project.
Under the overall planning of the command headquarters, all the participating units have formed a strong synergy, the production efficiency of the construction site has been improved step by step, and the progress of the project construction has maintained a stable and good trend, making up for the arrears of the construction period affected by the epidemic to the greatest extent.
Yao Feixiong, general manager of the Three Gorges South Asia Company, which is responsible for the safe production of electric power, spent an extraordinary Spring Festival this year. When I first arrived at the Karot Project, due to the impact of the epidemic, the construction of power production commissions and transmission and transformation lines had to be suspended. To this end, he actively coordinated all parties, successfully completed the project operation and maintenance bidding work, and communicated and negotiated with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Committee and the State Grid Corporation of Pakistan for many times to achieve the "zero epidemic" return construction of the State Grid Corporation of Pakistan, and the construction of the project transmission and transformation line was rapidly advanced. "We want to do our best to overcome the difficulties and let the local residents enjoy the benefits of power generation as soon as possible." He said.
At the same time, the Yangtze River power operation and maintenance team responded positively, the Karot Power Plant Preparatory Office was quickly established, and the preparation and transmission of power production are being carried out rapidly.
Fully promote safe production:
"To create a beautiful mechanical and electrical, boutique unit"
At the beginning of this year, Pakistan's climate is abnormal, and according to water forecasts, it may enter the spring flood season in February and March early, and there is a risk of flooding the plant. In the face of sudden challenges, the command headquarters made a decisive decision: raise the cofferdam of the plant, and at the same time lower the tailgate gate of the plant, and do a good job in flood prevention "double insurance"! In less than two months, the relevant participating units completed various tasks from on-site assembly gates, installing door slots to raising cofferdams, and realized the 8 gates of the tailwater of the plant before the spring flood. And all this is inseparable from the command headquarters commanding from the front and making preparations in advance.
▲On February 26 this year, the 8-hole gate of the 4 machines in the tailwater of the plant fell to the bottom of the hole and had the conditions for water retention
While speeding up the progress of the project, the construction quality of the Karot project has also been steadily improved. Adhering to the principle of "reducing stock, controlling increments and preventing variables", the site focused on preventing "multiple diseases" and "common diseases", the construction site set off the construction of concrete pouring sample warehouses, and the participating teams observed and learned from each other, and the skill level of construction operators in China and Pakistan was generally improved. At the same time, the goal of the project "to create a beautiful mechanical and electrical, boutique unit", strictly control the quality of the site of each process, step by step, in the mechanical and electrical production and installation production to create a shining node, the first unit rotor installation quality indicators are to meet the quality control requirements.
▲The spillway of the project spillway is beginning to take shape
At present, the Karot project has completed 90% of the project progress, according to the plan, at the end of January 2022, the first unit of The Karot has the conditions for production and power generation, and at the end of April of the same year, the four units have the conditions for commercial operation. At that time, the total installed capacity of the hydropower station will reach 720,000 kilowatts, with an annual power generation capacity of about 3.2 billion kWh, which can meet the power supply needs of 5 million people and greatly alleviate the power supply situation in Pakistan. It is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 3.5 million tons per year, making positive contributions to increasing the proportion of clean energy and optimizing the local energy structure.
Not only that, the construction process and commissioning of the Karot project will drive a large number of residents to employment, and will also create taxes for the local government every year, contributing to the long-standing friendship between China and Pakistan.