Minister for expeditious completion of power projects

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Economic Affairs Omar Ayub on Wednesday directed the relevant authorities to set timelines for expeditious implementation of the development projects after he was told that a land acquisition issue related to CASA-1000 had been resolved.

In a meeting of the National Coordination Committee on foreign-funded energy projects, Ayub emphasised on adopting latest technologies and geographic information system for monitoring of development projects in the country.

The minister for economic affairs said the government is taking various measures to develop a more reliable and efficient power generation, transmission and distribution system in the country. “The government is committed to unleash immense potential of renewable energy resources including solar, wind and hydel to provide affordable and environment-friendly electricity,” he said.

The minister appreciated the efforts of power division and line departments for improved implementation of foreign-funded projects in energy sector.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Power and Petroleum Tabish Gauhar, Economic Affairs Division Secretary Noor Ahmed, Secretary Power Division Ali Raza and others attended the meeting.

The meeting was told that the long-standing land acquisition issue of CASA-1000 transmission line from Pak-Afghan border to Nowshera had been resolved and the contractor had been mobilised on the project site.

With an estimated cost of $1.2 billion, Central Asia-South Asia power project envisages electricity supply from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The project’s total length is 1,270 kilometres while transmission line between Torkham and Nowshera is 113 kilometres long.

The project is funded by the World Bank, Islamic Development Bank, European Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, UK Department for International Development, and USAID.

The meeting was further told that significant progress on land acquisition for Dasu hydropower transmission line at Islamabad west is achieved. National Transmission Despatch Company is working on five grid stations at Mirpur Khas, Zhob, Lahore North, Jauharabad and Maira under ADB financing and the progress on these projects is now picking up.

During the meeting, the National Coordination Committee discussed 14 ongoing projects of energy sector including power generation, transmission and distribution amounting to $3.4 billion funded by Asian Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, World Bank, France, Germany, Japan and U.S.

Gauhar shared the progress made by power division and reiterated their commitment to resolve the bottlenecks and ensure smooth and timely implementation of the development projects. Government planned to reduce carbon footprints by increasing the share of renewable energy in power generation to 30 percent by 2030 from the current four percent.