Spending summer in the plains or hill station?

Huge difference in electricity bills is worth considering

PESHAWAR: If possible, spending the summer in a hill resort having a pleasant temperature could be an affordable option than suffering in the sizzling hot plains where the use of air-conditioners push up the electricity bills and cost a small fortune.

The difference between the electricity bills in a hill station and a city in the plains could be judged from two examples that were recently narrated to this writer.

Begum Shahzada Suleman, a former lawmaker belonging to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), said she had to pay a mere Rs120 monthly electricity bill recently in the summer for her house in Drosh in Chitral district. “As the weather here is pleasant in the summer, we often don’t have to use even fans. This means our electricity bill is low,” she pointed out.

In contrast, she said one of her close relatives living in Nowshera had to pay Rs52,000 monthly electricity bill due to the excessive use of air-conditioners to keep her house cool in the summer. “Consider the huge difference between our electricity bill in mountainous Chitral and her bill in Nowshera where the temperatures in summer can go beyond 40 degree centigrade. She needs to use airconditioners during the unbearable summer months in Nowshera while we in Chitral have never thought of installing airconditioning system in our homes,” the diehard PPP activist explained.

“I keep telling her to spend the summer in Chitral or some other hill station. The money spent on paying the high electricity bills due to the use of airconditioners could be used to rent a house in a hill station to escape the summer heat and enjoy the nice weather in Chitral, Swat or elsewhere,” added Begum Shahzada Suleman.

Many families are already doing what she suggested to her close relative in Nowshera. Those who can afford it rent houses for the season in the hill station and make it a point to shift there when children are allowed summer vacation. As Ramazan falls during the summer, the families ensure that the month is spent in a hill station to make fasting easier. Owners of houses in the hill stations look forward to the opportunity to make some money from rent.

Obviously, it isn’t an easy decision to shift the whole family to a hill station as requirements of job, business and children’s education are important considerations limiting one’s choices. Also, finding a suitable house for rent at a reasonable rate in a good neighbourhood is quite an effort. Security concerns have to be calculated as well.

However, those who have made the choice and spent summers away from home in a hill station are generally satisfied and most prefer to do it again.