The construction work on 660kV High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Matiari-Lahore transmission line under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project is at full swing and overall 86 percent work has been completed.

Major milestones like completion of 95 percent tower foundations and 40 percent of towers erection have already been achieved besides the conductor stringing activity has been inaugurated by Deputy Managing Director National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) Wajahat Saeed Rana at Hasilpur, Punjab.

Spread over around 890 km, the spokesman informed that the transmission line is being developed under the framework of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) agreement having a great national importance. National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) and Project Company M/s Pak Matiari-Lahore Transmission Company (Pvt) Ltd (PMLTC) along with NTDC Engineers & local sub-contractors are striving hard to meet the stringent timelines. The Project is designed to have bi-pole HVDC technology, having two converter stations, one each at the ends of Matiari (Interior Sindh) and Balloki (Punjab), three repeater stations and two grounding electrode stations.

The mega transmission line project will evacuate 4000 megawatts of power from coal based power plants in Thar region and thermal power plants including Nuclear power plants of Sindh to the Northern load centers of the country. This transmission facility will primarily be utilized to transmit power generated from indigenous Thar coal based power generation projects with an aim to enhance the share of indigenous fuel based generation and saving the significant amount of foreign exchange.

As per the agreed milestones, the Project is expected to formally start its commercial operation on 1st March 2021.

The NTDC spokesman said that, being the first ever project of the country, to meet the timelines, a large number of local labours has been employed and is working day and night with the Chinese Engineers & NTDC Teams and experts with zeal and zest.

CE HVDC Project Kamaran Siddiqui, CE EHV-I NTDC Altaf Hussain Baloch, Manager (Tech) HVDC Iqbal Haider, CEO PMLTC Dong gue Xing, Col Imran Khan Security Division CPEC Projects and officers from NTDC and Chinese company were also present during the inauguration ceremony of conductor stringing activity of HVDC transmission line.-PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020

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