Neighbour labour: China offers to help resolve K-P’s energy crisis

CINOTEC to establish 25 hydel power stations to produce 500MW .

PESHAWAR:

As part of China’s mission to help Pakistan resolve its energy crisis, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between the provincial government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and a Chinese company CINOTEC.

The MoU is for the establishment of 25 hydel power stations on different sites on the Swat river to produce 500megawatt (MW) electricity within four years.

CINOTEC Country Director Song and K-P Energy Secretary Sahibzada Saeed signed the agreement document on behalf of their respective organisations at the chief minister’s secretariat.

Speaking on the occasion, K-P Chief Minister Pervez Khattak appreciated the development, pointing out China’s helping hand in resolving Pakistan’s energy crisis.

“China’s whole-hearted cooperation and offers for overcoming Pakistan’s energy crisis is testimony to the fact that Pak-China friendship i permanent and higher than the mountains of Himalayas,” he said.

He was confident that China and its company would invest and provide the much-needed assistance to the K-P province.

Earlier, CINOTEC director told the chief minister that the feasibility of the hydel power stations at three different sites was being prepared and would be completed within the next few months, which would be followed by the construction. He said that CINOTEC would get loans from Chinese banks for all the projects.

To the question about security, he said that the people in the province were very optimistic about the project and, therefore, there was no concern over safety of the Chinese workers and officials.

It is worth mentioning that the company was already working on the Daral Khwar Hydel Power Project in Swat which is near completion and will produce 67MW electricity by next year.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2014.

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