Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park: 4,500 acres leased to Chinese company

Entity will develop nine 100MW plants to be run on solar energy.

LAHORE: The Punjab government has decided to lease 4,500 acres of land of Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park (QASP) to a Chinese company, Zonergy, for the latter to establish plants and generate electricity through solar power.

The land was being provided to Zonergy under the land lease policy notified by the Board of Revenue (BoR) in May, 2014, said a senior official of the Punjab Energy Department.

The Punjab government established the Qauid-e-Azam Solar Park over an area of 10,000 acres in the Cholistan Development Authority in Bahawalpur. Meanwhile, a company was registered under the company act with the SECP to do the supervisory role to make the park operational.

The company wants to establish nine plants, each with a capacity of 100MW. The entity has signed the project commitment agreement and submitted bank guarantees $3000 per MW.  An agreement was signed by the Punjab government and Zonergy in November, 2014, for the investment to establish 900MW solar plants.

Confusion

On February, the managing director of Punjab Power Development Board (PPDB) sent a summary to the energy department for the lease of land to Zonergy. However, the energy department sent the summary to the chief minister, requesting the lease to be given to Bukhsh Energy. Secretary to chief minister spotted the anomaly and BoR was authorised to allocate the land on a case-to-case basis. Hence, the approval for the land lease was delayed for about two months, said the official. PPDB MD Saniya Awais said Zonergy will invest $1.5 billion.

Published in The Express Tribune, March  31^st,  2015.