The two countries signed a contract on Monday to officially
use the mentioned transmission line for exchanging up to 200 megawatts (MW) of
electricity in the near future.
The contract was signed in a ceremony attended by Mehrabian
and his Pakistani counterpart Khurram Dastgir Khan.
"The electricity transmission line between Iran and
Pakistan was designed and built in less than a year with a capacity of 200
megawatts," Mehrabian told the press on the sidelines of a meeting with
Dastgir Khan prior to the signing ceremony.
“The necessary experiments and tests have been carried out
on this line and it is now electrified,” he said.
"In today's meeting with the minister of energy of
Pakistan, there were good discussions about the exchange of electricity through
this line," Mehrabian added.
The official put the current value of annual trade between
the two countries at over two billion dollars, adding that with the
construction of this line, the volume of electricity exchanges between the two
countries will increase to 200 megawatts which will be a significant boost for
the economic ties.
Dastgir Khan for his part referred to his previous trip to
Iran saying, “In this trip, the progress of the previous agreements regarding
electricity exchanges between the two countries through the electricity
transmission line was pursued and efforts were made to reach a final
agreement.”
Emphasizing the necessity of developing and deepening the
relations between the two countries he added, "It is hoped that we will witness
the development of electricity exchanges between the two countries with the
final agreement following the formation of technical and commercial
teams."
This was the second meeting of the energy ministers of the
two neighboring countries in less than a year. Dastgir Khan met with Mehrabian
during his trip to Tehran last June.
