Chinese investment: ‘Darkness will end with China’s help’

Development can’t happen without electricity, says CM.

LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said the government was making all-out efforts to overcome the shortage of electricity, and a project for power generation from coal in Punjab. He said China had offered an investment package of $32 billion. He said the darkness on account of power shortfall would be lifted from the country with China’s help.

Sharif was speaking to industrialist, Husain Dawood, on Sunday. Cooperation in the energy sector was discussed. Sharif said President Mamnoon Hussain’s visit to China had resulted in a substantial increase in Chinese investment in energy and infrastructure. He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s ‘historic package’ to set up an economic corridor with China would usher in a new era of development. He added that the goal of economic development could not be realised without the generation of affordable electricity.

Sharif said for the first time due attention was being paid to low-cost electricity using coal. He said speedy progress was being made towards power production from Thar coal. He said that there were vast reserves of coal in the Punjab as well, and the government was working on their utilisation. He said Nandipur power project would be completed by the end of the year and its first turbine would start producing power within two months, resulting in an initial generation of 100 megawatt electricity.

Sharif said the present government believed in transparency and merit-based decision making.

Provincial Minister for Minerals Sher Ali Khan and additional chief secretary for energy were also present.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2014.