The right project at the right time
The 4,000MW transmission line costing $1.5 billion will be first of its kind and will link Matiari town to Lahore
The construction of a much-awaited but somewhat delayed mega power transmission line project is now poised to be launched this month with the help of State Grid of China. This 4,000MW transmission line costing $1.5 billion will be the first of its kind in Pakistan and will link Matiari town, near a new power station, to Lahore city, a key link in transmission infrastructure. An agreement on the project was signed the other day in Beijing between Pakistan and China. The construction work is expected to take about 20 months to complete — just in time for transmitting power that would be produced by three very large power projects situated at Port Qasim, Hub and Thar. The one at Port Qasim is almost complete. Indeed, any further delay in launching the transmission project would have caused immense losses to the nation as in the absence of the required transmission lines these mega power projects would have simply turned into white elephants. The project is the latest in a series of big Chinese investments, most of which fall under a planned $55 billion worth of projects for a China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The corridor is a combination of power and infrastructure projects that link western China to Pakistan’s Gwadar. 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 $1.8 billion. Last week, a Chinese-led consortium bought a 40 per cent stake of the Pakistan Stock Exchange for an estimated $85 million.
The addition of the new transmission line carrying the latest transmission technologies is expected to significantly reduce the overall transmission and distribution losses in the country which currently surpass significantly the global standardised limits. Official neglect of the sector has created an inefficient distribution system having very high T & D losses and poor quality and reliability of power supply to consumers. In a welcome move the government realising the importance of limiting the T&D losses has lately turned its focus to upgrading the transmission and distribution system and improving its efficiency to reduce these losses.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 1st, 2017.
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