Karot hydropower station in Pakistan's Punjab Province. (Photo: Ding Xuezhen)

Islamabad (People’s Daily) – The Karot hydropower station being built in Pakistan is the first project to be undertaken as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and is the first to be constructed using Chinese technology.

The power station is on the Jhelum River in eastern Pakistan’s Punjab province and it is envisaged that it will bring sustainable and affordable clean energy to the country.

Environment-friendly project

As the first investment project of the Silk Road Fund, the Karot hydropower station is being developed by Karot Power Company Limited, comprising Three Gorges South Asia Investment Limited, a subsidiary of China Three Gorges Corporation, and Associated Technologies of Pakistan.

“The project has entered the construction peak period, with more than 4,000 on-site staff and about 500 sets of heavy mechanical equipment,” Zhang Jun, head of engineering at the Karot hydropower project, told People’s Daily.

The project has an installed capacity of 720 MW, an annual energy output of 3.2 billion kWh, and a total investment of $1.74 billion. The first unit is expected to meet power generation conditions in April 2021, and all four units are scheduled to come online at the end of November of the same year, according to Zhang.

The project adheres to “very strict” environmental guidelines, project environment manager Muhammad Mansoor Khan told People’s Daily. “[It is] because we want to build an environmentally-friendly project so as to benefit the local people in a sustained way.”