TAXILA: Chinese experts, working on the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects, on Tuesday visited the University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Taxila.

They briefed the academia of civil engineering department about the local agricultural waste they were using in the construction of 392-km- long Multan-Sukkur motorway (M-5).

The Chinese team led by Prof Dr Jian-Tong Ding along with other experts from Sino Hydro Breau-7 was attending a seminar on: “Stabilization with local agricultural by-products, such as sugarcane bagasse and its ash, rice husk ash” held at the transportation engineering department at civil engineering faculty.

During the seminar they discussed with the academia the use of local agriculture raw materials in the M-5 section of CPEC.

The Chinese experts said they had successfully utilised the agricultural waste in various projects in China and now planned to use them in the M-5 where agri waste like sugarcane bagasse is available in abundance.

Later talking to newsmen, Prof Dr Jian-Tong Ding has said that M-5, which would connect Multan to Sukkur, would be completed in 2019.

He said the M-5 passed through the sand area and typical Portland cement would not work for building a road for 100 years.

He said the utilisation of agri byproducts for the surface pavement would be jointly examined by the Chinese engineers and academia.

He said they were also working on Tarbela-IV extension project that will raise the generation capacity of Tarbela Dam to 4888MW by end of 2018.

“We are also working on Rs14.544 billion Keyal Khwar hydropower project in Kohistan which will produce 128-megawatt (MW) electricity,” he added.

He said Karot Hydropower Project with an installed capacity of 720 MW was being developed as part of the $46 billion CPEC, and was expected to be completed in 2020.

Published in Dawn January 4th, 2017