The Pakistan government is likely to market hydro power projects totalling 1600MW within a couple of months, through provincial governments and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said.
The Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) has almost completed technical evaluation of six out of numerous projects identified by the provinces, and these are ready to be offered to investors immediately. Ranging from 20MW to a maximum capacity of 600MW, most of the projects which the PPIB has selected to be offered to investors, are located in the Northwest Frontier Province and Jammu and & Kashmir.
The PPIB was instructed to process the hydel projects early this year, soon after they were identified by the governments of NWFP and the AJ&K. This is in accordance with the government’s power policy announced exactly a year ago. The provinces have been authorised by the policy to offer and negotiate terms and conditions including tariff with investors as it suits them. PPIB’s role was limited only to technical evaluation of the projects identified by the provinces.