Coal-based ventures: Chinese firm eyes up to four plants at Gadani Power Park

Projects will lead to investment of around $4 billion.

ISLAMABAD: A Chinese company has expressed keen interest in setting up power plants with a total production capacity of 2,640 megawatts in Gadani, Balochistan and the venture will lead to an investment of $4 billion.

China Gezhouba Group Company (CGGC) and the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for developing three power projects of 660MW each (totalling 1,980MW) based on imported coal in the planned Gadani Power Park.

Earlier in January, the two sides had inked another MoU in Beijing for setting up a 660MW plant in the Power Park. Now, CGGC has shown interest in establishing three more plants, taking the total production capacity to 2,640MW with investment outlay of $3.5-4 billion.

PPIB Managing Director NA Zuberi and CGGC President Chen Xiao Hua signed the MoU on Tuesday. Water and Power Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif was also present on the occasion.

Saying that relations with China were of historical importance, Asif recalled that during Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s recent visit to China, Beijing had committed to making substantial investment in different sectors, including power plants.

Chinese companies were keen to enter into business ventures in Pakistan and Gezhouba was one of them, he said.

He declared that the Gadani Power Park initiative had sparked a lot of interest from international and local investors.

At present, CGGC is playing a key role in constructing 969MW Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project as a lead contractor in collaboration with China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation.

CGGC is also the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for 840MW Suki Kinari hydropower project in the private sector, which is expected to achieve financial close by July this year. However, construction work is likely to start in a couple of months.

These power plants would help overcome load-shedding in the country, Asif said, adding different companies would be invited to lay transmission lines on the independent power project (IPP) mode and they would be allowed to charge tariff.

CGGC has big stakes in large dams in China like the Three Gorges, Shuibuya, Jinping-I and Longtan Dam and its business has spread to over 70 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and America.

In 2012, CGGC was ranked 62nd among top 225 international contractors in the world and the 42nd largest contractor by revenue, which is about $7.5 billion.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2014.

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