Hydro power resources can revive economic development in KP: Mehmood

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has called for utilizing abundant resources of hydro power generation for reviving economic and development activities in the province.

He is under tremendous nation obligations to serve the poor segment of the society. “His government was going all out to give relief to the people in all social sectors”, he added.

He was presiding over a high level meeting which was attended by Federal Minister for Energy Umer Ayub, Provincial Minister Akbar Ayub, Advisor to CM on Energy Himayat Ullah, Secretary Energy, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Chief PESCO and others at Chief Minister House Peshawar.

The meeting focused on the infrastructure development, the under utilization of the existing system, wheeling of electricity, nomination of board’s members through consultation with the provincial government and the six month widow available to the PESCO for the upgradation of system, the connectivity of already available electricity to the national grid, the overbilling, the shift in policy for the consumption of electricity produced in the local areas both for the domestic and industrial consumption locally and the project of waste to energy conversion.

The meeting thoroughly discussed these issues and agreed to settle them both by energy and planning division at federal level.

Mahmood Khan asked the Federal Minister to work out a mechanism that could facilitate the provision of already available power to be used by the province both for the twin purpose of domestic use, industrial growth, trade and commercial activities at local level.

The Malakand-III project and others of the likes could be run on these lines.

The locally produced electricity could be extended to Malakand and other areas where the WAPDA could not lay down the transmission lines to connect these power stations to the national grid.

The priority should stay for the provision of locally produced electricity for consumption at local level, he added.

Chief Minister said that he had discussed the issues of the province with the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan with focus on giving relief to the people and upgrading both the infrastructure and system of electricity.

The province, he added, has the capacity to generate beyond the required amount of electricity for the whole of the country.

He had already informed him of the crises and the issues confronted the province adding that the production of electricity would yield three dimensional benefits for the province and the people that he said including that the electricity production would boost industrialization and business activities, bring productivity to the agriculture sector largely concentrated in the rural areas and would generate maximum job opportunities for the youth.

He said that his government wanted the stability and consistency in the growth at rural level to trap the majority portion of the population for contributing in the productive sectors and strengthening the local economies.

Mahmood Khan said that the Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed him and the Federal Minister for Energy to work out a mechanism as how to give relief to the poor which should be the centre of all governmental activities and how to effectively discourage power theft and emancipate the people from overbilling.

The Federal Government would go an extra yard to resolve these issues on priority basis.

He thanked the Prime Minister Imran Khan for his keenness in resolving the longstanding issues of the province especially the progress on outstanding dues on net hydel power generation and also appreciated the federal government for his commitment to resolve the problems of the province as expeditiously as possible.

The Federal Minister assured all out support to the provincial government in the system’s upgradation, improved transmission lines, the evacuation of generated power, holding of a meeting of all stakeholders to find out permanent solution to all outstanding issues.

He also talked about the federal government plan for the energy corridor including Basha Dam, Dasu Dam, Swat, Chitral and Hazara and the interconnectivity of the whole system.

The federal minister stated that he was tasked by the Prime Minister to settle all issues of the province as expeditiously as possible.

The meeting informed the Federal Minister about the provincial government representation at different forums both of power generation and gas.

He was further informed about the waste to energy conversion project that the meeting endorsed was absolutely in line with the vision of the Prime Minister for green and clean Pakistan.