660mw electricity added to national grid from Sahiwal

• Chinese engineers brief Nawaz Sharif about functioning of CPEC’s early harvest project
• China-trained 190 young Pakistani engineers join two coal-based power plants in Sahiwal

Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Thursday inaugurated the first unit of the Sahiwal Coal Power project to add 660 megawatts of electricity to the national grid.

The prime minister, who was accompanied by Punjab Governor Muhammad Rafiq Rajwana, Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafiq and State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali unveiled the plaque of the project. China’s Ambassador Sun Weidong was also present on the occasion.

Around 190 young Pakistani engineers trained in China have been employed for the plant operations. With a total capacity of 1320 megawatts, the project comprised two coal-based power plants with capacity of 660 megawatts each. This is one of the early harvest project of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The Chinese engineers briefed the prime minister about the functioning of the plant.

The project has been completed in a record period, six months ahead of the prescribed schedule, as the prime minister had launched work on the project on May 30, 2014. Executed by M/s Huaneng Shandong Ruyi Pakistan Energy Private Limited, the project had already been connected to the national grid since May 12, this year.

The power plant is expected to start generating 1320 megawatts from the first week of June this year which would also be six months before the planned schedule. Built as a latest state-of-the-art technology supercritical coal fired power project, the power plant was is environmentally compliant with high thermal efficiency to ensure low fuel consumption.

The power generation from the project is expected to exceed nine billion kWh, which would significantly contribute in alleviating energy crisis. The project will produce electricity with a levelized tariff of Rs 8.11/unit. The Punjab government had extended loan facility to the Pakistan Railways for construction of spur line from nearest railway station to the project site and coal was being successfully transported to the project site.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony, Prime Minister Nawaz said that his government’s performance would wash away all the baseless allegations by the opposition. “They (opposition) are not impeding or attempting to foil me. They are attempting to obstruct the country’s progress. We will not allow them to affect our pace,” he said.

He said that the people would distinguish between the negative and corrupt elements and those, who delivered. He said that he had no time to respond the unfounded accusations of the opposition rather left it up to the people to decide as all of his focus would be on the people’s uplift. “Now, work on the development projects has started and it will not stop,” he said.

He said that the government had planned to allocate a record budget for the development works in the next fiscal year as the people would listen to Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar delivering the annual budget speech in the National Assembly on Friday (today). Lauding the successful execution of the project in 22 months, he said it was unprecedented, as usually even the coal shed (a component of the project) took more than two years to complete.

“This is Punjab speed. This is the PML-N speed. Hats off to you Shahbaz Sharif! You called me hero, you are hero yourself,” the prime minister remarked highly acknowledging the services of the Punjab chief minister and his team. On the chief minster’s recommendation, he also announced a one-month bonus salary to all of the Chinese and Pakistani workers, who had been part of the project.