Pakistan to purchase 4,000 MW of electricity from China

ISLAMABAD: Energy-starved Pakistan will purchase 4,000 megawatt of electricity from China to meet its power crisis, media reports said today.

The country has been hit by some of the worst power cuts in recent years, shutting businesses and enraging the domestic consumers. China has offered to export 4,000 MW of electricity to Pakistan for which a memorandum of understanding will be signed in a couple of days, Dawn reported.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has already approved the plan last week.

"We have received a draft MoU from China," an official of the ministry for water and power was quoted by the paper as saying.

An official delegation had gone to Beijing to discuss the draft with officials of the State Grid China, he said.

The legal team of the Private Power and Infrastructure Board and the National Transmission and Dispatch Company had proposed some changes in the draft, he said, adding that the scheduled fourth meeting of Pakistan-China Joint Cooperation Commission in Beijing on March 25 would review the proposed changes.

The meeting would also finalise the agreement for signing during the forthcoming visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Pakistan, he said.

The two sides will also discuss modalities, including the financing of the transmission line, tariff and deadline for completion of the project.

Water and Power Minister Khwaja Asif yesterday hinted that the project would be ready by 2018. The government has already announced to add 10,400 MW to the national grid with the help of China by 2017.