PESHAWAR: The provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Chinese company CINOTEC for the establishment of 25 hydel power stations on different sites on River Swat to produce 500 megawatt electricity within a period of four years.

The signing ceremony was held the Chief Minister's Secretariat. Director, CINOTEC, Song and Secretary Energy, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sahibzada Saeed signed the agreement document on behalf of their respective organizations.

Besides, Jin, president CINOTEC, Advisor to CM on Economic Affairs Rafaqatulllah Babar and Vice Chairman, Board of Investment &Trade (BOI&T) Mohsin Aziz other officials concerned were also present on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pervez Khattak while paying rich tributes to both governments and people of the Peoples' Republic of China for extending helping hand in every odd hour.

He said that the whole-hearted cooperation and offers of China and its companies for overcoming the energy crisis in Pakistan was testimony to the fact that Pak-China friendship was permanent and higher than Hamaliya.

He expressed the confidence that the Peoples' Republic of China and their companies would invest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and would especially assist the provincial government.

Earlier, Director CINOTEC told the Chief Minister that feasibility of hydel power stations at three different sites on River Swat was being prepared and would be completed within next few months which would be followed by the construction works. CINOTEC will get loans from Chinese banks for all these projects.

To a question about security of the Chinese officials, he said that they  did not bother about it because they found the people of this province  friendly with China and hence they were feeling happy to serve the people.

It is worth mentioning here that the company was already working on Daral Khwar Hydel Power Project in Swat that was near completion and would produce 67MW electricity by next year.

Source: APP