Power loadshedding substantially reduced: Nawaz

Says problem will become a chapter of history before govt completes tenure

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has assured the nation that the government would not only eradicate loadshedding before completion of its tenure, but also bring its tariff down to an affordable extent.

Chairing a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy at the Prime Minister Office (PMO) here on Tuesday, he said the government had unprecedented edge to execute power generation projects having capacity more than the power generation initiatives taken during the last 20 years.

The huddle was attended by federal ministers Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar, Ahsan Iqbal, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Khawaja Saad Rafiq, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) for Foreign Affairs Syed Tariq Fatemi, Secretary to the Prime Minister (SPM) Fawad Hasan Fawad, federal secretaries Nadim Assef Hasan, Arshad Mirza, Yunus Dhaga and other senior officials. 

“We will keep on exploring new power generation projects at micro as well as mega level to ensure sustained and uninterrupted electricity for our future generations — a duty that previous governments were unable to fulfill.”

The meeting reviewed all ongoing power projects in terms of timelines including clean energy projects, coal fired power plants, hydel and LNG power plants that will add significant electricity to the national grid during the year 2017 and before March 2018. 

Besides, the meeting also deliberated on the future power generation projects to cater for the ever increasing energy requirements of the country in the wake of increased economic activities, massive infrastructure and industrial development across the length and breadth of the country.

The status of work on establishment of new transmission lines was also discussed at length in addition to streamlining the power distribution system.  The meeting was informed that bottlenecks were being removed in the distribution system to ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity to the consumers. 

Nawaz appreciated the good work done by the officials of Ministry of Water and Power and said by the end of tenure of the government reliance on costly fuel for power generation will be reduced to a great deal.

He said the country was gripped by the energy crisis when the present government came into power and today the situation had changed significantly. “There is now zero loadshedding for the industrial sector while for the urban and rural areas it has substantially and gradually been reduced, the prime minister said.

“Our holistic reforms in the energy sector and efforts for generating additional power through diversifying the energy mix will help in meeting the future energy requirements of the country,” he said.

These endeavours of the present government have earned significant recognition and acknowledgement on a wide scale the world over, the prime minister observed with satisfaction. 

Secretary Water and Power Yunus Dhaga briefed the meeting that circular debt had been caped; recoveries were satisfactory and line losses had been minimized. The meeting was informed that transmission and distribution lines projects were on track. 

The prime minister said the focus of the government right from the first day was to resolve the energy crisis adding sufficient energy to the national grid.  “Besides, we are determined to provide cheaper electricity to our people. I am happy that we are on track in our endeavours; InshaAllah, loadshedding will be a reference of history, the prime minister stated.