China to build $1.5 billion power line across Pakistan

China’s State Grid Corporation is set to build a $1.5-billion power line across Pakistan to enable the transmission of 4,000 megawatts of electricity from the country’s north to south, the government said on Friday.

Pakistani and Chinese officials signed an investment agreement in Beijing on Thursday to build the country’s first high-voltage, direct current line, according to a government statement.

Matiari-Lahore link

The power transmission line would link the national grid between the southern Pakistani town of Matiari and easternmost city of Lahore, some 1,000 km apart.

Pakistan has been struggling to provide enough power to its nearly 200 million citizens, and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has vowed to solve the crisis by 2018. He inaugurated Pakistan’s fourth nuclear power plant on Wednesday, a joint collaboration with China that adds 340 megawatts to the national grid as part of the government’s efforts to end the energy deficit. — AFP