Federal Minister for Planning and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal, while briefing the Parliamentary Committee on CPEC which met under the chairmanship of Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed on recently concluded 6th meeting of the Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) in Beijing on December 28-29, 2016, said that with some other new projects, Diamer-Bhasha Dam would also be part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
The minister informed the parliamentary committee that industrial zones proposed by the provinces as well as Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan have been accepted and proper feasibility of industrial zones as well as of an additional port at Ketti Bandar, proposed by the Sindh government, would be carried out. He informed the all four provincial capitals, Lahore, Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar would have rail-based mass transit system as part of the CPEC.
Ahsan Iqbal told the committee that for the first time, Thar Coal, which has a huge capacity, would be used for electricity generation for the next 400 years. He added that two transmission lines, Matiari-Lahore and Matiari-Faisalabad, are being installed which would evacuate electricity from south and will be connected to the national grid benefiting all parts of the country.
Moreover, there was an agreement on giving priority to the construction of the western route of the CPEC as well as up-gradation and dualisation of Karachi-Torkham railway line at the cost of $8 billion. This would be the biggest railway modernisation project in the history of Pakistan, he added.
CPEC related energy projects will add 5000MW electricity till 2018 in the system.
