A Chinese state firm will help build a power line across Pakistan in a project valued at $1.5 billion, the latest Chinese investment in its South Asian neighbor.
The 4,000-megawatt power transmission line will be the first of its kind in Pakistan, according to the Pakistani government. It will link Matiari in the south, near a new power station, to Lahore in the east.
An agreement on the deal was signed on December 30 in Beijing between Mohammad Younus Dagha, Pakistan's secretary of water and power, and Shu Yinbiao, chairman of State Grid Corporation of China.
Pakistan has been plagued by a shortage of electricity for years, with widespread rolling blackouts in both rural and urban areas.
The project is the latest in a series of big Chinese investments, most of which fall under a planned $55 billion worth of projects for a China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
