ISLAMABAD: Economic Affairs Division Secretary Noor Ahmed, Ambassador of France to Pakistan Marc Barety and French Agency for Development (AFD) Country Director Jacky Amprou have signed a credit facility agreement worth €50 million (Rs9 billion) and a grant agreement worth €0.2 million (Rs36 million) for the rehabilitation of Dargai and Chitral hydropower projects.
A statement released by the French Embassy said on Friday that the funding will allow the modernisation of the two hydropower plants as well as the upgrading of their generation capacity from 20MW to 22MW for Dargai HPP and from 1MW to 5MW for Chitral HPP.
The main objective of the project is to provide adequate facilities for the generation, transmission, and distribution of energy to meet the current and future needs of Chitral and Malakand regions. It will also result in the industrial, agricultural and economic development of the regions.
France, through the French Agency for Development, is working in Pakistan providing technical and financial support in the energy sector where €315 million financial support has been committed since 2016.
The EAD secretary thanked the French government and AFD for extending the financial assistance to Pakistan.
