Pakistan, China sign $1.5 billion Matiari-Lahore transmission line

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China have signed an agreement under which the State Grid Corporation of China (SCGG) will help Islamabad to build the country’s first-ever 878-km Matiari-Lahore high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line of $1.5 billion to transmit more than 4,000 megawatts of coal-based electricity from projects in Sindh to the Punjab province. 

The project was signed on Thursday in Beijing between Pakistani Secretary for Water and Power Mohammad Younus Dagha and Shu Yinbiao, chairman of State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC).

The projects which will be connected with Matiari switching stations for power transmission through this HVDC transmission line include Engro Thar Unit I & II (660MWs); Thar Coal Block-1 (Shangai) (1,320MWs); Port Qasim (1,320MWs) Hub Power at Port Qasim (1,320MWs).

The project is the part of the Chinese Investment in Pakistan in major infrastructure projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) amounting around $55 billion. A subsidiary of the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) i.e. China Electric Power Equipment and Technical Company Limited (CET), will lay the transmission line on a build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis in January 2017 which will take around 20 months to complete.