France signs soft loan, grant accord

Islamabad: French Ambassador Marc Baréty, Country Director of the French Agency for Development Jacky AMPROU and Secretary of Economic Affairs Division Noor Ahmed signed the 50 million Euros credit facility agreement and 0.2 million Euros grant agreement to finance the rehabilitation of Chitral and Dargai hydropower plants.

The funding will allow the modernisation of the two hydropower plants, as well as the upgrading of their generation capacity from 20MW to 22MW for Dargai HPP and from 1MW to 5 MW for Chitral HPP, said a statement issued by the French Embassy.

The main objective of the project is to provide adequate facilities for the generation, transmission, and distribution of energy to meet the current and future needs of Chitral and Malakand regions. This will also result in industrial, agricultural and Economic Development of the regions.

The project will contribute to the government of Pakistan’s strategy to develop green energy, reduce greenhouse gasses emission which is very much aligned with the French government’s agenda of promoting climate-friendly projects.

France, through the French Agency for Development, is providing technical and financial support in energy and urban development sector in Pakistan, where Euros 610 million financial support has been committed since 2016.