Chinese firm to run Nandipur power plant

LAHORE

The federal government has decided to hand over 425-MW Nandipur combined cycle thermal power plant to a Chinese firm for operations and maintenance.

A senior official of the Ministry of Water and Power from Islamabad disclosed to The News that the initial agreement with the Chinese firm had completed, which would cover a period of 10 years. Now the two parties are negotiating financial aspects of the deal.

The plant was constructed and completed by China’s Dongfang Electric Corporation in March 2015 after a long delay due to various hiccups.

However, it was shut down due to some technical issues after some days, which created controversy, the official said.

Pakistani engineers of the project was sent to China couple of times for training to ensure continuous operation of the plant, but the efforts remained fruitless as every time a different technical issue occurs, the official disclosed.

According to the official, the policymakers discussed the inability of local administration to operate the thermal power plant and various options in a number of sessions.

It was proposed that some Chinese firm could be engage for better management and efficient output as local human resource was unable to operate it properly.

So the government has decided in favour of handing over the plant to the Chinese firm with efficient financial deals besides hiring some foreign staff as well.

The official said as per the agreement, 25 per cent staff (mainly Chinese) –technicians, engineers, and administrative – would be hired by it.

It has been decided that the Chinese firm would be responsible to ensure smooth operations.

Once the operation and maintenance (O/M) charges are fixed – likely to be done within one month, the Chinese will take over the charge.

If the firm failed to keep the plant operational in any case other than the said agreement then it would have to pay penalty, the official added.

He said the officials of the Chinese firm were currently in Pakistan to inspect the project, which is the last step before taking it over.

It is expected the Chinese firm will officially take over the project from Jan 2017.

It is estimated that the Nandipur power plant would generate 450-MW output according to the total installed capacity after the move as local engineers have failed to keep the plant operational without any breakdown.