The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) government and the Chinese company have signed the agreement for the construction of the 300 MW Balakot hydropower project.
On Tuesday, the KPK government signed an agreement with a Chinese company. The 300 MW Balakot hydropower project is said to the biggest power generation plant in the province. It would take an estimated cost of Rs85 billion in 6 years with the financial support of the Asian Development Bank.
According to the report, the signing ceremony was held on Tuesday where Mahmood Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister was the chief guest. Officials of the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (PEDO) and China Gezhouba Group signed the agreement. Adviser to CM KP Himayatullah Khan, Taimur Saleem Jhagra, KP Finance Minister also attended the event along with other officials of the energy and power department.
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Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister, while speaking on the occasion said that this project has vital importance for KPK and contains a milestone achievement of the provincial government. He added that this mega project is most likely to be performed by mid-April by Premier Imran Khan.
Moreover, this project will be helpful to boost industrial activities, generate jobs, and the province will have an overall great development. At least 4000 job opportunities will be generated through this project and Rs14bn per annum revenue will be generated. The power generated by the Balakot hydropower project will be provided to local industries, also to domestic consumers at moderately cheaper rates.
The KPK CM further said that the government was taking effective and result-oriented steps to ensure the optimum utilization of the hydropower potential of the province that aims to meet its energy requirements and strengthen its economy. Many hydropower projects with a total capacity of 160 MW have been completed under PEDO and other projects are under progress with a total capacity of 216 MW.
