Zubair qureshi Islamabad
The Japan government has 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 project-based loan of Japanese Yen 11,943,000,000 (app US$93 million.
In this regard, the letter of amendment of loan agreement has been signed between Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Ministry of Economic Affairs, Government of Pakistan.
Additionally, JICA also accepted the utilization of remaining project loan amount for flood response.
Accooeding to a press statement issued Monday the extension of loan utilization period will enable National Transmission and Dispatch Co Ltd (NTDC) to utilize remaining balance for the procurement of necessary materials as replenishment of essential materials in NTDC Warehouses which were urgently utilized for repair and maintenance of national transmission lines affected in the devastated floods of 2022 across Pakistan.
The main objectives of these projects 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 500 KV Grid Station Rahim Yar Khan, 500/220 KV grid station at Faisalabad West along with associated transmission line, 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.
Moreover, the sub-stations and transmission lines constructed under JICA supported project contributed to mitigating the capacity ratio of neighboring substations and transmission system.
