ISLAMABAD/BEIJING: China’s State Grid Corporation is set to build a $1.5 billion power line to enable the transmission of 4,000 megawatts from Pakistan’s north to south.

Pakistani and Chinese officials signed an investment agreement in Beijing on Thursday to build the country’s first high-voltage, direct current (HVDC) line, according to a government statement.

The line will link the national grid between Matiari and Lahore, some 1,000km apart.

The agreement was signed by Water and Power Secretary Mohammad Younus Dagha and Shu Yinbiao, Chairman of the State Grid Corporation of China.

The signing ceremony, held at the State Guest House in Beijing, was witnessed by federal ministers and the chief ministers of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan, along with senior Chinese officials.

The construction will begin in January and should take about 20 months, a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office said.

The project is the latest in a series of big Chinese investments, most of which fall under planned $55bn projects for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The corridor is a combination of power and infrastructure projects that link the Xinjiang region in western China to the Gwadar port.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also inaugurated on Wednesday the country’s fourth nuclear power plant, a joint collaboration with China that adds 340MW to the national grid as part of the government’s efforts to end a growth-sapping energy deficit.

Mass transit projects

Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal said the Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) on CPEC had approved rail-based mass transit projects for all provincial capitals of the country — Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi and Quetta.

He told APP that the projects would be almost similar to the Orange Line Train system being built in Lahore.

All the four projects have also been made part of the CPEC framework.

Mr Iqbal said the Pakistan-China cooperation was entering a new phase with an agreement to set up nine industrial zones in the country, of which two would be set up by the federal government in Islamabad and Karachi and the rest in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Azad Kashmir.

The CPEC was covering the whole country and it was a clear message for those levelling allegations that industrial zones were being set up only in one province, the minister said.

He said the JCC had also approved new road projects for connectivity of all the provinces, including Chitral to Chakdara and Gilgit-Baltistan to Karakoram, Muzaffarabad, Mirpur and Mansehra highways, which would further be linked to nearby areas.

For Balochistan, the Basima-Khuzdar road would be built and for Karachi, the circular railway and Keti Bandar projects would be completed, he said.

Mr Iqbal said the provinces would complete the feasibility and technical studies as soon as possible so that work on the projects could be launched soon.

The effects of CPEC on the national economy were already quite obvious, he said and added that the construction of steel and cement industries was picking up pace and employment opportunities were being created.

He said 10,000MW would be added to the national grid by 2018.

The minister said 5,000MW would be included under the CPEC and another 5,000MW under independent federal government projects. “This will completely alleviate the energy crisis and help boost the economy further.”

The government was now focusing on transmission line projects so that the energy produced by the power plants in south Punjab could be added to the national grid, he said. In this regard, the Matiari-Lahore transmission line had also been discussed by the JCC, he added.

Stock exchange stake

The Shanghai Stock Exchange said in a statement that a Chinese-led consortium had purchased a 40 per cent stake in the Pakistan Stock Exchange.

The consortium is made up of the China Financial Futures Exchange, Shanghai Stock Exchange, Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Pak-China Investment Company and Habib Bank, according to the online statement.

The three Chinese exchanges would have 30pc of the Pakistan exchange and the investment would help promote economic and financial cooperation between the two countries, it added.

According to media reports, the stake was bought last week for an estimated $85 million.

Other Chinese investment in Pakistan has included the acquisition of a majority stake by Shanghai Electric of the K-Electric power production and distribution company for $1.8bn.

Published in Dawn December 31st, 2016