The Government has announced to extend deadlines for five power plant projects under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). These power plants have a generation capacity of 3,600 megawatts.
Several projects under CPEC including these power plant projects were facing delays for various reasons including ongoing pandemic and surplus generation capacity. Back in August 2021, the Pak-China Relations Steering Committee had also ordered to finalise a uniform policy framework for the extension of these projects. However, the policy couldn’t work properly and projects were falling far behind the expected dates.
Pakistan remained an energy deficit country over the last two decades, suffering from acute power deficiencies that caused shortfall in economic growth. However, CPEC energy projects helped Pakistan overcome its electricity crisis in true letter and spirit.
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a strategic economic project to enhance economic connectivity between Pakistan and China. More than $ 46 billion will be invested in Pakistan’s power, infrastructure, industrial and agriculture sectors under the CPEC. Under this multi-billion dollar project, the GDP growth rate of Pakistan is targeted to increase about 7.6% by 2030 with the addition of about two million jobs in the market. CPEC has already provided incentives for Pakistan’s different sectors through its rich economic interests and opportunities. However, twenty-one energy projects have already been started under this plan which will double Pakistan’s current electricity production and will produce 16,400 megawatts of electricity.
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