Energy-starved Pakistan has initiated the procedure to import electricity from India as Islamabad has already sent a draft of the initial power trade deal to the Indian government.

Islamabad made the move soon after the World Bank (WB) agreed to finance the feasibility study as well as transmission line for the import of 1,200MW of electricity from India.

A senior official from Pakistan's Water & Power Ministry, "Now, the World Bank has also offered to finance a feasibility study along with the (installation of) transmission line to import 1,200MW power from India . the MoU will be an initial commitment to India."

An Indian official said that Indian authorities would respond to Pakistan's move after going through the draft of initial power trade deal. The official expressed hope that the plan could be implemented within a year. Initially, Pakistan will import 500MW of power, which would later be enhanced to 1,200MW.

The Pakistani official also announced Pakistan's plans for importing electricity from Iran and Tajikistan in the future.

Currently, Pakistan is importing 35MW of electricity from Iran. It has plans to increase it by 100MW in the future. In addition, Pakistan has a project in the pipeline to start importing 1,000MW of electricity from Tajikistan from around 2016.

Most of the countries meet nearly 80 per cent of their power requirements from their installed infrastructure, but Pakistan's power generation capacity meets just 65 per cent of its requirements, mainly because of old power plants, poor maintenance as well as huge circular debt.