Govt to operate 36 megawatts Daral Khwar hydel power generation plant

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to operate the 36 megawatts Daral Khwar hydel power generation plant in Swat district under the public sector.

It was decided at the 46th meeting of the Board of Directors of the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (Pedo) with its Chairman Nisar Mohammad in the chair, said an official handout issued on Monday.

Secretary Energy Mohammad Zubair Khan, Additional Secretary Finance Akhtar Saeed Turk, Deputy Secretary Home Nasrullah, Chief Executive Pedo Naeem Khan, Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Maqsood Anwar Parvaiz and others attended the meeting. The meeting decided to hire staff on a two-year contract basis to run the power generation plant and this policy would be applied to other power generation plants if it produced the desired results.

The meeting was informed that operating the Daral Khwar hydel power generation plant under the public sector would help save financial resources and add to the experience of the relevant officials.The meeting was also briefed about the Covid-19 situation and the precautionary measures to prevent the officials of the organization from getting infected.

The meeting was told that seven Pedo employees had contracted the coronavirus. The meeting was informed that the Chinese working on Mataltan, Lavi, Koto and Karor projects had stopped working due to the lockdown and they would soon return to work.

The participants were told that despite the coronavirus lockdown 300 mosques were solarized in the merged districts while work on being carried out on other projects at a cost of Rs10 billion. The online monitoring system was also being introduced for these projects.

The meeting also discussed the procedure for the appointment of project directors and chief engineers for Gabral, Kalam, Madyan and Mataltan hydropower projects being executed with the financial help of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.