China will help Pakistan to set up direct current high-voltage transmission lines along with the route of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
According to China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Ltd Company, 910-km, 660-kilovolt Matiari-Lahore DC transmission line will be built with two converter stations.
The transmission line is being constructed as part of CPEC. It is going to start from a converter station at Matiari near Hyderabad city in Sindh province and ends at Nankana Sahab.
The contract is worth over $1.76 billion and will take 27 months to construct, according to CET. Construction would begin soon.
"The project, once completed, will help transmit 4,000 MW of electricity and fuel exports worth about 10 billion yuan ($1.44 billion) annually," said Zheng Baihua, deputy manager in general of the company.
"The project is of great importance to sustain Pakistan's GDP growth. As per market consensus, it is expected to rise at a rate of five per cent in 2017 and 5.5 per cent in 2018, from a forecast rate of 4.7 per cent for 2016," said Joseph Jacobelli, senior analyst of Asian utilities and infrastructure research at Bloomberg Intelligence.
