Financial close: NTDC secures Rs18b financing for power transmission line

The 250km transmission line will be laid from Thar to Matiari

LAHORE: The National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) has secured a combination of Islamic and conventional financing worth Rs18 billion for the laying of a 250km 500-kilovolt double-circuit transmission line from Thar to Matiari and the construction of two line bays/shunt reactor at the Matiari switching station.

Of the Rs18-billion debt, Rs11.5 billion is the Shariah-compliant mode of financing whereas Rs6.5 billion is conventional financing. The transaction has been made for a period of 15 years.

To mark the financial close, a signing ceremony was held in Karachi a couple of days ago.

Earlier, the NTDC had got debt arrangement offers from various financial institutions along with a Letter of Credit facility of over Rs15 billion for building the transmission network.

A consortium of Askari Bank Limited, Faysal Bank Limited and Dubai Islamic Bank Pakistan Limited (DIBPL as the Shariah adviser) won the mandate in December 2015 after a competitive bidding process.

The NTDC has undertaken the project costing Rs22.3 billion in the wake of government’s directive to improve and enhance the existing electricity transmission network.

“This transmission line is of great significance to the country as it will transmit around 1,200MW of electricity from the Thar region where power projects are being set up by consuming local coal as primary fuel,” the NTDC said in a statement on Friday.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2017.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.