Deal signed for 720MW Karot power project

Costing $1.69b, the plant will generate 3.2b units of clean energy per year

ISLAMABAD: The Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) and Karot Power Company have signed an implementation agreement for the development and operation of the 720-megawatt Karot hydroelectric power project.

PPIB Managing Director Shah Jahan Mirza and Karot Power Company CEO Sheng Zhendong executed the implementation agreement at the PPIB office on Thursday.

The run-of-the-river, priority project of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will be built at Jhelum River on the boundary between Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.

It will have the capability to generate 3.249 billion units of clean, reliable and affordable electricity per year. The estimated cost of the project is $1.698 billion.

Mirza said the government attached top priority to generating electricity at affordable costs and in line with that PPIB was handling and facilitating the development of 26 projects of a cumulative 14,000MW capacity comprising hydroelectric power and coal-based projects to meet future energy requirements.

In addition, 3,600MW state-supported re-gasified liquefied natural gas-based projects are also being facilitated by the PPIB. The Karot project is being developed by Karot Power Company comprising Three Gorges South Asia Investment Limited, a subsidiary of China Three Gorges Corporation, China-CTGC and Associated Technologies of Pakistan.

After completion, the company will run and maintain the project for 30 years after which it will be transferred to the Punjab government at a notional price of Rs1.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2016.

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