Govt wakes up to CPEC power projects delays

The government has set a one-month deadline for the Power Division to devise a policy to deal with the problem of a delay in start of commercial operations by five China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) power projects having 3,600 megawatts (MW) generation capacity.

The projects are falling far behind their dates of commissioning (CODs) agreed between the government of Pakistan and the Chinese investors due to overall slowdown of the work on the CPEC projects, Covid-19 related delays and strikes at some projects.

The Pak-China Relations Steering Committee took this decision on Monday in addition to giving a oneweek deadline to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) to decide the tariff petition for the Lahore-Matiari Transmission Line — another critical CPEC project falling behind schedule by years.

“While discussing CPEC energy projects facing delays owing to Covid-19 pandemic, the committee directed the Power Division to formulate a policy to deal with COD extensions issues of the power projects,” read a handout issued by the Ministry of Planning after the committee meeting.