'China committed to building two more units at Pak's Chashma Nuclear Plant'

Islamabad, Dec 21 (ANI): China is committed to construct Unit no.3 and Unit no.4 of the Chashma Nuclear Power Plant (CHASNUPP) in Pakistan, Board of Investment (BoI) Chairman Saleem Mandviwala has said.

Addressing a press conference, Mandviwala said that the Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) worth 10 billion dollars had been signed with China to enhance power generation in the country, the Daily Times reported.

China helped Pakistan in constructing CHASNUPP-1, which started its commercial operations from September 2000, and the construction of CHASNUPP-2 also started with the help of China in 2005, and is expected to start power generation from 2011, he said.

Pakistan wants China to help in adding two more units to produce cheap nuclear electricity, he added.

Mandviwala also said a 6.5-billion-dollar worth MoU was signed between the China Three Gorges Corporation and the Alternate Energy Development Board to undertake development of 3,000MW of wind and solar power projects on a build, operate and own (BOO) or build, operate, own and transfer (BOOT) basis.

He said that many important MoUs could not be signed due to time constraints, and these would be taken up in the bilateral fora.

The agreements signed by the private sector would be executed immediately, while the government-to-government deals would take a little longer for implementation, he added. (ANI)