The first unit of the China-built Suki Kinari Hydropower project in northwest Pakistan was started up and formally entered the wet testing phase on Sunday.

It marks that the project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) stepped into the final sprint stage and one big step closer to operation and power generation.

Cheng Dan, general manager of China Energy Construction Overseas Investment Company Ltd., which invests in and implements the project, told Xinhua that the first unit successfully passed a series of tests after starting up with a smoothly running state, and met the design requirements.

Read:CPEC phase-II to begin soon, says Chinese diplomat

He said that the unit will pass through dozens of tests later, including a temperature stability test, to ensure that all technical indicators meet the design standards.

Located in the Mansehra district of the South Asian country’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the hydropower project started construction in January 2017.

Once becoming functional this year, it will generate some 3.21 billion kilowatt-hours of clean electricity annually, replacing 1.28 million tons of coal and reducing 2.52 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, according to the Chinese manager.

The project will effectively meet 20 percent of Pakistan’s electricity deficit, he added.