China will also set up a 1,124-MW Kohala hydropower project in POK under the multi-billion-dollar CPEC despite India's objection to it. The details of the project were presented in the 127th meeting of the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) on 1 June.

A tripartite agreement has been finalised among China's Three Gorges Corporation, the authorities in PoK and the PPIB to implement the project under the CPEC framework.

The project will be built on the Jhelum River and aims at annually providing more than five billion units of clean and low-cost electricity for consumers in Pakistan. The paper further reported that this marked one of the largest investments of USD 2.4 billion in an independent power producer (IPP) in the region.

The 3,000-km-long CEPC is aimed at connecting China and Pakistan with rail, road, pipelines and optical cable fiber networks. It connects China's Xinjiang province with Pakistan Gwadar port, providing access to China to the Arabian Sea. The CPEC passes through PoK, over which India has conveyed its protests to China.