The Gwadar Power Plant will soon be operating: Ahsan Iqbal
Professor Ahsan Iqbal, the federal minister for planning, development, and special initiatives, gave the relevant authorities instructions to speed up the building of the Gwadar Power Plant on Tuesday.
As the minister presided over a meeting to assess the Gwadar Power Plant’s development, he gave these instructions. The meeting was attended by ministry officials, Mr. Yang Guangyuan, the Chinese embassy’s commercial minister counsellor, the managing director of the Private Power Infrastructure Board (PPIB), and other pertinent parties.
It is observed that M/s CIHC Pak Power Company (Pvt) Limited (CPPCL) is developing a 300 MW coal power plant at Gwadar, which PPIB is handling. The project is highly significant for the region’s economic growth and energy infrastructure, and it is on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s (CPEC) “priority list.”
The minister ordered the relevant parties to clear all obstacles and get construction underway right once, saying, “The supply of electricity is essential in Gwadar and no delay will be accepted.” Referring to Gwadar as “the gateway of CPEC,” the minister stated that phase 2 of the project is being implemented more quickly by the current administration, which has also merged five new economic corridors into it.
The city of Gwadar will become a focus for maritime commerce and a new smart port for the area with the construction of Gwadar Port City, New Gwadar International Airport, and East Bay Motorway. Balochistan will industrialise as a result of it as well,” he declared.
The Gwadar Power Plant, the supply of 2000 boat engines to Gwadar fishermen, the Khuzdar-Panjgur Transmission line (via Nag-Basima) connecting Markran with the National Grid, the New Gwadar International Airport Project, the China-Pak Friendship Hospital, the China-Pak Technical and Vocational Institute in Gwadar, the Gwadar East-bay Motorway Project, the Gwadar Free Zone, and the Gwadar Port are all noted to be major projects under the CPEC.
Several projects in Gwadar, especially those pertaining to power and water that the previous government purposefully neglected, were finished during PDM’s administration. Additionally, the budget for 2023–2024 quadrupled the amount of development funding allotted to Balochistan.
Editor: Raja Kamran