K-Electric and National Industrial Parks Development & Management Company (NIP) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for laying of transmission lines, building grid station, and supply of electricity lines at Bin Qasim Industrial Park (BQIP). This agreement will cater for the potential additional electricity requirements at BQIP after development.
Through the MoU, KE will develop a 64-megawatt grid and 132kV transmission line, extendable as per future needs, at an initial tentative cost of Rs 1.8 billion. At the same time, NIP will seek approval from the federal government for funding support under Special Economic Zones Act 2012. As per agreement, the power utility is ready to jointly present the technical and cost structure of grid to federal government/ECC along with NIP. If full funding support for the entire grid is not received, KE and NIP shall consider working on a grid cost-sharing arrangement, whereby the cost of the grid will be distributed to the industrial units in proportion of their load requirements.
The MoU was signed by Moonis Alvi, CEO K-Electric, and Rizwan Bhatti, CEO NIP, in the presence of Abdul Razak Dawood, Adviser to Prime Minister and other prominent businessmen at PIDC. The MoU comes at a crucial time when various large-scale industrial concerns in the project are planning to enter production phase in the coming months.