An Irani company named as Sunir will construct an electricity transmission line for supply of power from Iran to Pakistan’s port city of Gwadar and an agreement has been signed in this regard.
According to Pakistan’s Ministry of Energy (Power Division), the agreement was signed on Wednesday under which an Irani company Sunir will construct an electricity transmission line for supply of power from Polan to Gwadar (Balochistan).
However, Pakistan’s Power division has so far not shared more details particularly the total cost of the construction of the transmission line and the duration for completion of this electricity transmission line project.
On Tuesday, Pakistan and Iran signed an agreement for supply of additional 100 megawatt of electricity to fulfil the daily power needs of the port city of Gwadar. The agreement for the supply of additional 100MW of electricity to Gwadar was signed by Pakistan’s National Transmission and Despatch Company and Iran’s power generation and distribution company known as TAVANIR on Tuesday.
Federal Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir Khan had reached Tehran on June 19, 2022 on a four day visit to ensure enhancement in the energy cooperation between the two neighbouring countries. Khurram Dastgir, in a statement, said that this project will be completed within a shortest possible time to provide relief to the people of Balochistan.
It is relevant to note that Iran has been supplying electricity to Gwadar, Kech and Panjgur districts in southwestern Balochistan since 1999. It supplied 35MW daily until 2013, after which the quota was increased to 100MW due to the growing needs of Gwadar. Iran, during the month of May 2022, had supplied 54.52 Gigawatt hour (GWh) which was 0.37 percent of the total power generated from different sources and the cost of one unit of Iranian electricity is Rs18.9673 per kilowatt hour (kWh).
On 20th June, Federal minister for power Khurram Dastgir Khan held a one on one meeting with Iran’s Minister for Energy Ali Akbari Mehrabian in Tehran. The meeting aimed at increasing avenues of cooperation in the energy field between both neighbours.
Both sides discussed various aspects of electricity supply from Polan to Gawadar. Federal minister for power lauded the energy cooperation between Pakistan and Iran and reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to strengthen the relations. He stressed on the need to expedite the electricity import project. Both long term and short-term energy plans were discussed.
It is pertinent to mention that Gwadar is not connected to the national grid and relies on power from neighbouring Iran while the port city of Gwadar is the centre of the $65 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
