Power-starved Pakistan today received a major boost as a China-backed 340 MegaWatt (MW) nuclear power plant in its Punjab province was inaugurated by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. The plant has a capacity to generate 340 megawatts of electricity.
Addressing the inauguration ceremony of the power plant, PM Abbasi thanked China for providing technical and financial assistance to Pakistan for establishing the C-4 power plant, and expressed hope the two countries would continue to collaborate in the energy sector, among others, in the future as well.
"There is no doubt, these power projects would not have been possible without the cooperation of China and the Chinese people," he said, as he invited China to invest further in Pakistan's energy sector.
The Prime Minister said other power projects, notably K2 and K3, are also progressing smoothly and would soon be completed.
Today's project is the fifth power project to be inaugurated in the past eight months, he said, expressing hope that these power projects would soon resolve the energy problem in the country and also help improve the environment.
PM Abbasi vowed that the government would be able to eliminate load shedding soon. "Ending load shedding remains the government's top priority," he asserted.
The Chashma nuclear power project units C-1, C-2 and C-3 have been successfully contributing to the national grid since 2000, 2011 and 2016, respectively.
Two large-sized nuclear power plants, K-2 and K-3, are under construction near Karachi and are scheduled to be operational in 2020 and 2021, respectively. They will add 2,200MW electricity to the national grid.
