Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has constituted a committee for an urgent probe into reasons for the technical fault in the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project that led to suspension of power generation.

He issued the directives at the project site during his day-long visit to Azad Jammu and Kashmir where he was briefed about the recent technical fault during the last month.

The 969 megawatts project first faced suspension of power generation in 2022 due to the fault in head race tunnel and was later restored after a year in September last year, and the recent one in April this year due to the same technical fault.

Shehbaz Sharif expressed his displeasure that the findings of the inquiry into the recent fault were still awaited and directed the officials concerned to submit the report within days and restore the power generation after repair work as early as possible.

He directed that the inquiry should be carried out by third party experts and not by the designer or contractor of the project.

He also directed the Water and Power Development Authority and Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project Company to complete the repair work of the tunnel at the earliest and resume generation.

The Prime Minister appreciated the WAPDA chairman and his team for their efforts to repair the fault in the tunnel and resumption of generation last year.