September 20, 2008	Saturday	Ramazan 19, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Sept 19: A transmission line for importing from Iran 100MW of electricity for Gwadar will be launched during the visit of the Iranian minister for energy next month.

The minister will be in Pakistan from Oct 15 to Oct 17.

This was decided during a meeting of Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan Mashaallah Shakeri with Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf here on Friday.

They agreed to expedite the process of importing electricity to Pakistan.

The ambassador offered to invest in power projects and said Iranian companies were interested in plans for upgrading the transmission lines system in Pakistan on low cost. He also offered sizeable investment in hydropower plants.

The ambassador said the Iranian government was ready to assist the elected government in every sector.

The minister responded by saying that Pakistan wanted to expand bilateral relations with Iran in all sectors. He said Pakistan was facing many internal and external challenges and energy deficit was one of them.

He said the government was taking measures to bridge the gap between electricity demand and supply through fast-track projects. He said steps were being taken to generate 35,000MW by the 2016.

He said the government attached high priority to exploiting indigenous resources like coal, water and wind for power generation. He said the country’s first windmill in the private sector would become operative next month.

He said a memorandum of understanding had been signed to purchase 1,000MW from Iran. He said Iranian investors would be facilitated in investing in the water and power sector.