[3] Though the plant is now considered to be part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which was announced in April 2015, the symbolic ground breaking for the project actually preceded the announcement of CPEC and took place in May 2014,[4] as the government of Punjab in March 2014 invited bids for the construction of two 660MW power plants in order to help alleviate Pakistan's energy shortfalls.

[10] The plants each consist of one boiler, steam turbine and generator, and are fueled by sub-bituminous coal which will be offloaded at the project's purpose-built rail terminus.

[15] In order to connect the plant to the national electrical grid, a 9.5 kilometer 500 kilovolt single circuit transmission line will be constructed from the site to the Sahiwal Substation.

[18] An estimated 4.48 million tons of coal will be required annually for the plant, based on a calculation of 22 hours of power generation per day.

[6] Indonesia is identified as a primary source for its high quality coal, reliable production, and short transit times to Pakistan.

[19] Coal from Pakistan's own Thar coalfield was found to contain excessive amounts of sulfur and lime, and was not deemed to be of high enough quality for the project.

[21] Of this, the Chinese consortium bore 20% of the cost ($356.4 million) while the remaining 80% ($1.4256 billion) was financed by a loan from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

This raises in the minds of people concerned, a critical question related to the site of the project and the possible risks linked with pollution and soil fertility decline.

For this purpose, modern electrostatic precipitator and desulphurization technology has been fitted in this project which will take care of the quality of air by eliminating dust particles, ash and sulphur contents from the outgoing flowing gas.