THE GOVERNMENT COMMITTED TO OVERCOMING ENERGY CRISIS: CHAUDHRY ABID SHER ALI Islamabad: September 11, 2013 Chaudhery Abid Sher Ali, Minister of State for Water and Power, has said that the federal government is working dedicatedly to overcome energy shortages in the country. He said that Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif was taking personal interest in the matter. He said that the Prime Minister’s instructions were clear that no delay would be allowed in execution of power projects, adding that he wanted the work of months to be performed within days. Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali expressed these views while talking to media men during his visit of site of Raised Mangla Dam Project in Mirpur (Azad Jammu and Kashmir) today. Chairman WAPDA Syed Raghib Abbas Shah briefed the Minister of State for Water and Power on the occasion. Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali said that the National Power Policy 2013 was a consensual document, which was formulated in consultation with the federating units and other stakeholders, adding that objectives outlined in the Policy spelled out a roadmap for making Pakistan self-sufficient in the power generation. He said that the PML-N’s government believed in actions not words. He said that the Ministry of Water and Power through WAPDA was working on the construction of a number of mega, medium and small-sized, run of the river dams such as Diamir Basha, Dassu, Neelum-Jehlum and Nandipur which would not only help generate low-cost and environmental friendly electricity but also store additional water for agricultural purposes as well. Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali said that the country’s power sector was in a shambles as a result of policy neglect of the previous government. He further underlined the need of bringing about drastic reforms to revive the sector. He said that due to transmission and distribution infrastructure being obsolete and outdated, the attendant losses were about 25-30 per cent coupled with electricity theft, which caused a loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer annually. He said that if we overcame system’s inefficiency and improved its management, around 1400 MW of power could be saved from wastage. The Minister of State said that the energy mix was heavily tilted in favour of costly thermal power. He said that the government was focusing more on hydropower production to generate low-cost electricity. He said that the Ministry of Water and Power through WAPDA was working on a number of hydropower projects, which were at various phases of completion. The simultaneous work on so many projects, he maintained, was unprecedented in the country’s history, adding that upon completion, these projects would add thousands of megawatt of affordable power to the national grid. The Minister of Water and Power said that as against the world practice of using coal for 40 per cent of overall power generation, we are producing major chunk of electricity from Tharmal-powered plants, he held. He added that this explained why power tariff was so high and shortfall between demand and supply so wide. He said that Pakistan Power Park at Gaddani in Balochistan would produce coal-powered 6600 MW from ten plants. While answering questions of the media men, the Minister of State for Water and Power assured the Mangla dam affectees that the government would fulfill all their justified demands as per agreement reached at the time of their displacement. He said that Rs. 52 billion had already been distributed among the affectees in addition to distribution of plots and payment of additional rents. He said that Mangla Dam Raising was a project of huge significance and the optimum filling of reservoir up to 1239.10 feet on September 11 was historic event, which would result in benefit of billions of rupees to national economy. He said that he would personally look into affairs of the affectees and visit the dam every month. Responding to a question regarding construction of Kala Bagh Dam, the Minister of State said that formation of national consensus was a pre-requisite for this. To another question about the government’s plan of importing electricity from India, he said that the government would take decisions in larger national interest on the basis of mutual respect and equality. He said that Pakistan wanted to establish friendly relations with all its nighbours. Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali also inaugurated New Mirpur City Hospital set up by WAPDA. He expressed his dissatisfaction at the use of substandard material and ordered an inquiry against the contractor. He also inspected Mangla Power Station and main dam. Earlier Chairman WAPDA Syed Raghib Abbas Shah briefed the Minister of State for Water and Power about salient features of Mangla Dam Raising Project. He said that following successful completion of the project, water storage capacity of the dam increased from 4.5 MAF (1202 feet) to 7.392 MAF (1242 feet). He said that dam became the largest water reservoir of the country as it surpassed Tarbela Dam’s live water storage capacity of 6.58 MAF after raising of its height by 30 feet. He said that in addition to contribution of 644 million units of cheap hydel electricity from the existing power hosue, the raised dam would store additional water of 2.88 MAF, which would transform the socio-economic landscape of the area by boosting agriculture besides averting flood hazard for low-lying areas of River Jehlum. The Chairman WAPDA said that under the guidance and direction of the federal government, WAPDA was making all-out efforts to increase water storage capacity of existing reservoirs to fulfill the demands of irrigation and hydropower generation. WAPDA’s Member (Water) Husnain Afzaal, Member (Power) Rizwan Ahmad, and Member (Finance) Najbeeb Tariq, General Manager Mangla Dam Raising Project Ghulam Sarwar Memon and senior officials of WAPDA were also present were also present on the occasion.
Posted on: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 19:14:34 +0000
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