Photo taken on May 15, 2023 shows the dam of Suki Kinari Hydropower project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Mansehra district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. Pakistan's Suki Kinari Hydropower project in the northwestern part of the country achieved the dam capping on Monday, marking it entering a new construction stage. (CGGC/Handout via Xinhua)

Pakistan's Suki Kinari Hydropower project in the northwestern part of the country achieved the dam capping on Monday, marking it entering a new construction stage.

The successful capping of the concrete dam on the Kunhar River will help advance the construction progress of the power station under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), located in the Mansehra district of the South Asian country's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Calling the capping a key milestone of the 884-megawatt hydropower project, Chen Jiangbo, deputy manager of the Suki Kinari Hydropower project of China Gezhouba Group Company Ltd., which invests in and implements the project, attributed the achievement to the joint efforts made by the Chinese and Pakistani constructors despite multiple challenges.

The hydropower project started construction in January 2017 with a total investment of about 1.96 billion U.S. dollars. It will significantly optimize Pakistan's energy structure, boosting the country's economic and social development, said the Chinese deputy manager.

Once getting functional, the CPEC project will annually generate some 3.21 billion kilowatt-hours of clean electricity, replacing 1.28 million tons of coal and reducing 2.52 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, he added.

Launched in 2013, the CPEC is a corridor linking Pakistan's Gwadar port with Kashgar in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, highlighting energy, transport and industrial cooperation.