A ceremony was held to celebrate the Commercial Operation Date (COD) of the Thar Block-1 Integrated Coal Mine Power Project on March 22.
On the occasion, Pang Chunxue, Charge d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan, extended her congratulations to the successful COD of the Thar Block-1 Integrated Coal Mine Power Project. “It is a new remarkable achievement of CPEC cooperation, injecting strong impetus to the high-quality development of CPEC and bringing more benefits to the people,” she noted.
The Thar Block-1 Integrated Coal Mine Power Project, a key energy project under CPEC, is developed, constructed and operated by Thar Coal Block-1 Power Generation Company & Sino Sindh Resources Company and parent company Shanghai Electric Group. The project successfully completed a 168-hour reliability operation test and officially started a commercial operation on February 5 this year.
During construction, “the project has provided more than 18,000 direct employment opportunities for the locals, with a cumulative tax payment of 120 million USD and CSR expenditure of over 1.3 million USD,” Pang Chunxue pinpointed. After COD, it will provide electricity for 4 million households, bring significant social and economic significance in reducing fuel imports, saving foreign exchange reserves, optimizing power supply structure and enhancing energy security.
It is worth mentioning that this year marks the 10th anniversary of BRI and CPEC. As a win-win cooperation, CPEC has brought a total of $25.4 billion in direct investment, $17.55 billion in revenue, $2.12 billion in taxes, and altogether created 192,000 local jobs, helping Pakistan add 8,000 megawatts of electricity, 510km of highway and 886km of the national core transmission network.
“CPEC has contributed to laying a good foundation for Pakistan’s industrialization, modernization and connectivity to the region. In the future, the CPEC cooperation will focus more on industry, agriculture, science and technology etc, increasing Pakistan’s export capacity and competitive edge,” Pang Chunxue concluded.
