KAROT, May 25: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that the 720 MW Karot Hydropower Project will add environment-friendly and cheap electricity in the national grid.
The prime minister said this while addressing the engineers and workers at the under-construction Karot Hydropower project during his visit to the site of the project on Wednesday.
The prime minister said the foundations of the project were laid back in 2015 and it is part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, which lies at the junction of Punjab and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Expressing his gratitude to the Chinese company for this project, Shehbaz Sharif said this project will not only provide clean and cheap energy that has no environmental hazards, but will also help us save Rs4 billion. He said that that project will help us in moving forward to strengthening Pakistan-China friendship.
Prime Minister Sharif urged the people to reject the politics of sit-ins and immorality which has inflicted huge economic loss to the national economy in the past as well. He said the memories of the 2014-sit (by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) still haunt which caused the postponement of the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“A sit-in is being planned again… We should not divide the nation through sit-in… What message are you giving through the sit-in,” the prime minister questioned the PTI leadership which was on its way to Islamabad for a sit-in in the federal capital. Without naming the PTI, he said the political party was requested to suspend their sit-in for three days but they were adamant not changing their mind.
He said that had the visit of the Chinese president taken place in 2014, the Karot power project would have been completed a year ago to contribute 720 megawatts to the national grid.
He said the government is trying to rectify the bad economy and inflation inherited from the previous government. By reducing the oil prices, the previous government left a “landmine” for his government, he added. He said the previous prime minister had enough time to drag the opposition to a tight corner and create division in the society but could not find some time to visit the gigantic project, and control inflation, poverty, and unemployment. He said after coming into power through a constitutional process, the incumbent government is striving to take measures for controlling inflation and stabilize the economy.
He said during his interaction, the Chinese engineers assured him of early completion for which he thanked the Chinese and Pakistani workers, departments and ministries concerned for taking utmost interest to complete the project. He also thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping, PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif and the chairman of Three Gorges Company which is executing the project.
The prime minister said that being a hydropower project, the electricity price would reduce to even Rs3 per unit gradually, after the retirement of the debt. He also thanked the Three Gorges Company head for agreeing to supply free-of-charge electricity to the national grid till the finalization of Commercial Operation Dates to save Rs4 billion to the national kitty, which was unprecedented and a gesture of strong China-Pakistan friendship.
“This is the China-Pakistan friendship and iron brotherhood…This is the passion to serve that everyone should have … The only solution is to work hard and learn from the past mistakes and reject the sit-ins to achieve the lost grandeur,” he remarked. The prime minister called for emulating the Chinese model of development. -TLTP
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