KARACHI, June 24: A Chinese company is planning a 50-megawatt wind energy project in Gharo, some 60 kilometres from Karachi, vice-president of the HydroChina International Engineering Company Limited Wang Youngqiang said here on Monday. He said that the cost of the project was estimated at $120 million.

Mr Wang, who is on a visit to Pakistan, said that the project had been initiated by the HydroChina Dawood Power Limited (HDPPL), a jointly incorporated company.

The project was a “symbol of China-Pakistan friendship” and it would start functioning by June 2015, he added.

He said the financial closure was expected to be reached either by the end of this year or by July 2014.

The project would also help provide jobs to the local people, he added.

He said that their company was also thinking about initiating nine more such projects of 50 megawatts each, in the time ahead because there existed good prospects for wind energy projects here.

“We look forward to more business, especially in the power sector to invest here.”

He was of the view that there was a potential of up to 50,000 megawatts of wind energy in Pakistan.

He appreciated the new federal government’s focus on resolving the energy problems in the country and the circular debt issue.

Investment manager of HydroChina Engineering Company Limited Jiang Li and chief financial officer of the HydroChina Dawood Power Limited Mohammad Saleem Munshi were also present with him. —APP