ISLAMABAD- The Senate was informed on Wednesday that energy projects with atotal capacity of 17,045 megawatts will be taken up under China-PakistanEconomic Corridor (CPEC).

This was stated by the Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms AhsanIqbal while responding to a question during Questions Hour in the UpperHouse.

He said that projects with a capacity of 1,110 megawatt based on researchand scientific analysis are on the advanced staged.

The Minister said that Chinese experts are undertaking studies to fundhydel projects on River Indus like Diamer-Bhasha, Bunji, and otherprojects. He said that in principal China has agreed to fund hydel projectson River Indus.

To a question, Ahsan Iqbal said that a project with a capacity of 300megawatt has been approved in Gwadar and work on this will be started assoon as Balochistan Government provides land for this purpose.

Answering a question, Minister of State for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzalinformed the House that inflation has come down from 4.16 to 3.75 percentduring July to December last year due to prudent policies of the presentgovernment.