After six years of construction, the Karot Hydropower Station in Pakistan has lowered the gates of its diversion tunnels and has officially started to store water on Saturday.
The Karot Hydropower Project in Pakistan is one of the major investments under the Belt and Road Initiative. The plant is along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a 3,000-kilometer-long route of infrastructure projects connecting the two countries.
It’s a milestone event, marking the completion of over 90 percent of the project. It also paves the way for power generation in eastern Pakistan in the first half of next year.
Karot Hydropower Station is located on the Jhelum River in Pakistan’s eastern province of Punjab. With an installed capacity of 720,000 kilowatts, it can provide over 3 billion kWh of clean energy each year, supplying electricity to about five million people in the country. The project not only provided employment but will also bring down electricity costs for consumers. “During construction, about 3,000 to 5,000 people will get the employment, and they’re already employed here. Another important thing is that the tariff for the project is around 7.5 cents per unit. So consumers in Pakistan will get a cheaper electricity from this basic project,” said N.A. Zubeiri, senior consultant to China Three Gorges South Asia Investment Ltd.
The project is an investment by China Three Gorges Corporation, a Chinese enterprise that’s among the world’s largest producers of hydroelectric power. Its subsidiary, the Three Gorges South Asia Investment, holds the majority share of the Karot Power Company that operates the plant. “This project is coming from private sectors, after completing 30 years, this project will be transferred to the provincial government, which means the government of Punjab will get a project of 1.7 billion (dollars) at free,” said N.A. Zubeiri.
The Karot Hydropower Station is the first investment project of the Silk Road Fund, and is part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Upon completion, it’s expected to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Pakistan by 3.5 million tons per year.
Sources:
CGTN, 20 Nov 2021. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-11-20/Pakistan-s-Karot-Hydropower-Station-starts-impounding-water-15leYRtodyw/index.html
Built by China, 21 Nov 2021. VIDEO: