Chinese firm express concern over CPEC project's slow progress

Islamabad [Pakistan] October 8 : A Chinese state company has expressed concerns over the slow pace of progress on the remaining portion of the 'Quaid-i-Azam Solar Park' project which is a part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
This is a 900MW solar power project which is under construction in Punjab's Bahawalpur, Dawn reported.
The project has been delayed because of a number of issues including complications from Pakistan's National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) and the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC).
"For the last couple of years, the Chinese company, which completed and commissioned 300MW of the 900MW project in 2016-17, has not worked further due to various official bottlenecks," an official source said.
The source claimed that the remaining 600MW had not yet reached fruition because the issues related to tariff and interconnection study reports are yet to be resolved by Nepra and NTDC, Dawn reported.
Earlier, a panel of the Pakistan senate had also said that Chinese companies are expressing irksome over the slow pace of progress on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
The remarks came from Saleem Mandviwallathe who is the Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Planning and Development. He also informed that no progress on the portfolio is visible in the last three years, Dawn reported.
A number of projects under the CPEC, including those in the power sector, are facing delays for various reasons including terrorism and the ongoing pandemic situation in Pakistan.
Despite inflaming billions of dollars in the project, the Pakistan authorities have failed miserably to showcase the valid progress and to maintain the impetus that delivered a series of power plants and other infrastructure projects in the first phase of the CPEC implementation, reported Dawn.