K-P to solarise public buildings, households

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has initiated the execution of two mega projects worth around Rs55 billion for solarization of all public buildings and provision of solar units to households having low income, with the aim to overcome the electricity crisis and make the province load shedding free.

Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) were signed between Bank of Khyber (BoK) and Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (PEDO) for the implementation of solarization projects, at a ceremony held here at Chief Minister's House with Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur as the chief guest.

Besides newly appointed Special Assistant to CM for Energy and Power Tariq Sadozai, higher authorities of Energy and Power, Finance departments and PEDO also attended the MoUs signing ceremony.

As per MoUs, under solarization of public buildings across the province project, all public buildings including hospitals, universities, colleges, schools, police stations, prisons, tube wells, street lights and other government offices will be solarized. The estimated cost of the overall project is Rs20 billion. Initially, 13,000 public buildings have been identified for conversion to solar energy and their solarization will be carried out at an estimated cost of Rs15 billion.

Moreover, under solarization of houses project, a total of 130,000 households having low income will be provided with solar units.

Out of total, 65,000 households will be provided solar units free of cost whereas as remaining 65,000 houses will be provided solar units at 50 per cent contribution by the government of K-P and 50 per cent by the beneficiaries.

The overall estimated cost of the project is around Rs35 billion. Under the project, around 100,000 houses of settled districts and 30,000 houses of merged districts will be converted to solar energy.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that the incumbent provincial government was making huge investment in energy sector aimed at ensuring availability of load shedding free electricity to citizens alongside enhancing the revenue for the province.

He added that, in solarization, those areas would be prioritized where load shedding and losses are comparatively high. The Chief Minister noted that providing solar units would alleviate the heavy burden of electricity bills on citizens and ensure power supply without load shedding.

He added that solarization of government buildings would result in significant savings on account of electricity bills.

"This year's budget has been named as green budget, newly initiated solarization schemes are of national importance, and their implementation would reduce the burden on the national grid as well," he concluded.