Power Generation: Work to begin on hydel projects

Projects will generate about 300 to 400 megawatts (MW) of electricity, to be completed over a period of four years.

PESHAWAR:

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P)Agriculture Minister Arbab Ayub Jan said on Friday that the provincial government has prepared a strategy to initiate work on five hydel power generation projects.

Talking to reporters at the Khyber Union of Journalists’ programme, Mulaqat, at the Peshawar Press Club, he said the World Bank has also committed soft loans for these projects, which are likely to be completed over a period of four years.

Once completed, these projects will generate about 300 to 400 megawatts (MW) of electricity. Prior to the 18th amendment, provinces were only allowed to work on projects up to 60MW.

There is a plan to provide electricity to industrialists on subsidised rates, he said.

Jan said that provincial government has also sanctioned installation of about 400 tube wells across K-P at subsidised rates to ensure supply of irrigation water for crops.

“Under a five-year plan to cultivate 20,000 acres, the government will bear 80 per cent of the cost incurred on levelling the land.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2012.