LAHORE: The National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) on Thursday signed a syndicated term finance facility of Rs17 billion with the United Bank Limited (UBL) for construction of 270-km transmission line to evacuate 969MW of electricity from Neelum-Jehlum Hydropower Project to the national grid.

UBL President Wajahat Husain and NTDCManagingDirectorMohammad Arshad signed the agreement. The facility also included Rs4bn from Bank Al-Habib.

The managing director NTDC said that the construction had already begun and in the first phase 145-km line linking Neelum-Jhelum to Domeli (near Rawat, Rawalpindi) would be completed before the commissioning of the project, whereas 130-km line taking power from Domeli to Ghakkar, near Gujranwala, would be built in the second phase.-Staff Reporter