ISLAMABAD: The Japanese government extended the project loan effective period up to 31 December 2024 of ongoing loan project, “Punjab Transmission and Grid Stations Project (1)”. The loan agreement was signed on 3rd May 2008 under which JICA provided a project-based loan of Japanese Yen 11,943,000,000.

In this regard, the letter of amendment of loan agreement has been signed between Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Headquarters, Tokyo, Japan and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Government of Pakistan. JICA also accepted the utilisation of the remaining project loan amount for flood response.

The extension of loan utilisation period will enable National Transmission and Dispatch Co Ltd (NTDC) to utilise remaining balance for the procurement of necessary materials as replenishment of essential materials in NTDC warehouses which were urgency utilised for repair and maintenance of national transmission lines affected in the devastated flood 2022 across Pakistan.

JICA to fund development of river embankments in Punjab

The main objectives of this project were to improve the reliability and quality of power supply through the reduction of outages and voltage fluctuation and to meet the fast-growing load demand by strengthening transmission systems in Punjab province.

Through JICA support, NTDC has built one 500kV Grid Station at Rahim Yar Khan, 500/220 kV grid station at Faisalabad West along with associated transmission line, and 220kV GIS grid station at Shalamar, Lahore along with associated transmission lines. The newly constructed 500/220 kV grid station at Faisalabad West along with associated transmission line will be expected to be operationalized soon.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023