A news regarding C 5 power project of Chashma captured my attention the other dy. Its content was suspicious:
- The first thing was that the cost of this plant is five billion dollars.
- The second thing was that the cost of the electricity it produced was Rs 20 per unit.
- The third thing was that in the form of this plant, the country suffering from shortage of dollars has swallowed a bitter pill.
It is good that the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission issued a detailed note on this news to the relevant newspaper the very next day, according to which:
The first thing is that it is not true that this project is worth five billion dollars, but the fact is that it is worth less than three billion dollars
Secondly, the news about the cost per unit is also not correct. This cost is not twenty rupees per unit but it is around ten rupees per unit.
Thirdly, this is not the first power project of its kind, but earlier projects one, two, three and four are working successfully and adding 1330 megawatts of electricity to the national grid which is cheaper than all other sources.
Fourthly, this project is not a bitter pill for Pakistan because the 120 million dollars worth of materials for this project will be manufactured and purchased from Pakistan’s local market. This will save foreign exchange, as well as the production of such items in the local market will also create the ability to supply the required items for any future project from here and pave the way for high-tech manufacturing.
When CPEC starts creating economic opportunities for Pakistan, there is a storm against CPEC. If the financial affairs with China go ahead, scary reports about China’s ambitions start to be published..
It is gratifying that the Atomic Energy Commission reacted to the news and put the real situation in front.
