PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Minister of State for Water and Power, Abid Sher Ali Tuesday said the federal government under the leadership of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif was endeavoring to resolve the issues with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He said following the directives of Prime Minister, the agreement to pay Rs 70 billion to KPK was reached between the federation and the provincial government.
It was historic achievement and reflected acumen of the Prime Minister, he added.
Addressing a press conference here after attending a briefing at WAPDA House, he said that incessant efforts are being made to end load shedding in the country by increasing power generation and upgrading electricity distribution system.
He said ambitious plans of the government in energy sector would end the load shedding from the country by 2017-18.
He said that project worth billions of rupees had been initiated to resolve the electricity related issues of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He said that line losses on 670 feeders of 867 in KPK were being faced, while the ratio of losses on 120 feeders is 80 percent.
He said that a committee had been constituted to take KPK government on board regarding issues of load shedding which after consultation and help of concerned parliamentarians would convince people to pay electricity bills.
The Minister of State said that common man would bear the brunt of load shedding if the menace of power theft was not addressed, adding action would be taken against PESCO officials who if to be found guilty of assisting or abetting electricity pilferers.
He informed that transmission line of 72 kilometers had already been laid as part of efforts to overcome low voltage and electricity break down.
A new consignment of heavy duty transformers has also been received and work on system up-gradation had initiated.
He said that work on Chakdarra and Manshera Grid Station was underway that on completion would resolve the issues of area people.
Abid Sher Ali claimed that sincere efforts of the federal government had considerably decreased line losses by 1.6 percent and increased recovery by 7 percent that had added a handsome amount of Rs 102 billion to national exchequer.
Recounting the efforts of the government to increase power generation, he said work on Dasu, Diameer and Basha dams are underway while Jamshoro project would be converted to coal adding the government has set a target to generate 10,000 MW electricity by 2018 and working ambitiously in this regard.
Source: APP
