Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission is in the process of setting up two nuclear power plants on the outskirts of the country's port city of Karachi, according to newspaper reports.

'Land of over 585 acres is being acquired next to the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant for the purpose', Dawn quoted a high ranking PAEC official, Zia-ul-Hasan Siddiqui as saying in Karachi. 

He said the nuclear power plants will be able to curtail the power shortages that the city has lately been facing.  

However, Siddiqui said no timeline had been drawn for the establishment of the plants.

The electricity demand of energy-starved Karachi has been growing at around seven percent. It peaked at 2,350 megawatt in the summer of 2006. 

Siddiqui, who previously ran the Chashma Nuclear Power Plant southwest of Islamabad, said the PAEC had been tasked to generate 8,800 megawatt through nuclear power plants by 2030. 

A nuclear power plant at Chashma town, which was constructed with Chinese assistance in 1990s is currently producing 300 megawatt of electricity while another plant with same capacity is currently under construction at Chashma.  

The two nuclear power plants on the outskirts of Karachi are also part of the plan to generate 8,800 megawatt of electricity, the PAEC official said.