Loadshedding to end in March next: Abid Sher

FAISALABAD: Total 10,000mw electricity will be added to the system by March 2017, completely eliminating the loadshedding from the country, said State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali.

In a statement here on Monday, he said that the ministry of water and power was taking interest to increase power generation in the country. He said that the Port Qasim and Sahiwal power coal plants would be completed in 28 months while 220kv grid stations of Faisalabad and Piran Ghaib would also be completed in a year.

He said that the government had provided a relief of Rs 132 billion to the consumers under the fuel price adjustment and vowed that maximum possible relief would also be given to them in future. Due to hectic efforts of the government, the circular debt had not increased, the minister claimed.

He said that new transmission lines from Port Qasim to Faisalabad and Matiari to Lahore were being laid while work for expansion of Tarbela and Wasu dams was afoot.

He said that four new grid stations were being constructed in Faisalabad while over a dozen transformers had been changed in Faisalabad to increase generation capacity of the existing grid stations.

During the month of Ramazan, maximum possible relief would be provided to the people, he said, adding that for the purpose, a very negligible loadshedding would be clamped on big industrial units, which were hitherto exempted from loadshedding.