KPT, Chinese firm sign $3 billion deal to develop coastal areas of Karachi

KARACHI: The Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and a Chinese company have signed a $3 billion agreement under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, an official said.

The government is working for the development of coastal areas of Karachi under the CPEC project, CPEC authority chairman Khalid Mansoor said at the two-day fifth “The Future Summit”.

Mansoor said that commercial and housing projects will occur in the adjacent Machar Colony of KPT.

The country after the year 2008, witnessed a shortage of energy with a daily 12 to 18 hours of supply cut off, saying that Pakistan needed to transfer its power generation from furnace oil to coal.

As the US and European companies were not ready to finance Pakistan’s coal power plant, the country turned to China to finance its coal power plant, Mansoor said.

The CPEC project consists of three phases, the first phase was completed in 2020 to overcome the energy crisis of the country, which was a big barrier in the economic development of the country, followed by the second step to be completed in 2025 and third phase in 2030, chairman CPEC authority informed.

The first phase of the CPEC included the development of the energy sector, transport infrastructure and Gawadar.

He said that the government is promoting alternative energy generation to overcome the power crisis present in the country, adding that there are a few issues in the completion of the ML-1 project, but they will be solved very soon.

CPEC is not only for Pakistan and China but it is for all the investors, as any country can invest in the special economic zones.