Khawaja Muhammad Asif. PHOTO: FILE
Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif said that the terrorists had inflicted heavy damage to grid systems in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), and the federal government was trying to have those broken distribution lines repaired.
Speaking at The Express News talk show ‘To The Point’ to anchor Shahzeb Khanzada, the minister said that the current K-P electricity demand is 2,400 megawatts, but its weak and damaged grid systems could not sustain the load and hence, the ministry had to limit the supply to 1,700 megawatts.
The main grid station near Peshawar called Muhammadi Grid Station, which was hit by terror attacks, will be restored in two months. He said that Rs11 billion were required to restore distribution completely so that the province is supplied electricity according to its demand.
Transformers will be supplied to the province on an emergency basis in order to address the problem in a span of two months. Defending the slow-paced recovery of the power crisis, Asif said power crisis is a 15-year-old issue, and the PML-N government has been trying to handle it since it came to power about forty days back.
“It was the night before yesterday at Sehri time that we were producing 15,000 megawatts, the highest capacity of generation recorded in the last four years.”
He explained that outages did not only result from load-shedding – technical faults also contributed to the problem. The government is working to improve and upgrade distribution lines.
Asif welcomed the K-P government’s initiatives to introduce power projects.
“The federal government will attract investment for these proposed power projects; they can construct dams in Chitral, Swat and on River Kunhar.”
“Alternatively, if they want they can take up the power distribution and we can supply them electricity,” he suggested.
He said that the coal energy power stations will be installed at the coasts so that the coal transportation costs could be saved. He said that if the coal from Thar is used, the power plants will be installed on the mine-heads, again to save the costs of transportation.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 16th, 2013.
COMMENTS (28)
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the PESCO administration have two major ways for improving their progress artificially . 1. when the pesco administration need to cover the losses or decrease the line losses they billed P/Disc consumers for reduiction of losses and when Pesco needs to improve the recovery position so they write off the dues against the P/Disc consumers .during last month only in peshawar circle a huge amount were waived off to the P/Disconnected consumers to show effeciency to the ministery . is this a progress . on the other hand the pesco administration is not in a position to cope with the theft of energy or the currupt officers /officials .the present BOD of PESCO and CEO is not in a position to coup with the demand of the time. .we are requesting the givt ,ministery ,pepco , to change the BOD and reorganised the BOD with the competent persons technically/professionally, all the corrupt mafia is partner with the labour union. if you want to bring improvement so banne the union activities. change the administration of pesco and bring new faces and blood to pesco. pesco run the activity on adhoc basis. no one is ready to accept the responsibility of the pescvo disuster.
The provincial government of KPK has completely failed in restoring law & order situation in the province and is now desperately trying to divert media attention. The WAPDA/ PEPCO authorities should recover the cost of new grid station from the province that has failed to protect precious property.
@iqbal: Here you go: http://tribune.com.pk/story/532524/grid-station-attack-wapdas-missing-men-released-from-captivity/
It says there have been 110 attacks on PEPCO installations including the Skeikh Muhammadi Grid Station. Personally, I like to google and make sure before I cry "lies!" at anything.
To be fair to the Khawaja Asif, he is not entirely all talk so far. He has been working. But his velocity of working is sluggish as compared to the urgency and magnitude of the problem at hand. By now Energy policy should have been made public and it should be have been started to be followed. But Khawaja has to spend less time talking, and more and more time working. This is the only way to avoid the ignominious dustbin of Pakistani political history, which is already full.
I wish PTI government the best of luck with their efforts to end loadshedding. I hope PML-N government will fully cooperate with KPK Government. We shall see loadshedding and terrorism free Pakistan in 2014 InSha Allah.
ET Why My Comments Are Not Posted? I have Read All your Instruction and FAQs about Comment. I have Not Voilated any Rule. I have Been Commenting From Year But Hundreds of comment is not posted!!!!!!!!!???????????????????????????????
Here in Lakki marwat we get only Four Hour electricity with 30 volt voltage and twenty Hrs Load shedding. & 30 volts voltage is unable to run even 100 volt Fan. Just Give Us one or Two Hrs Electricity in 24 Hrs But with Full Voltage. Please That is Request. Otherwise we will be compelled to do anything against Govt.......
What About Grid Stations in Other District Like Kohat Karak Bannu Lakki Marwat and Tank. Here in Lakki marwat we get only Four Hour electricity and twenty Hrs Load shedding. & we get less then 50 volts voltage in 4 Hrs that is unable to run even 100 volt Fan. Juust Give Us one or Two Hrs Electricity in 24 Hrs But with Full Voltage. Please That is Request. Otherwise we will be compelled to do anything against Govt.......
@Jadoon: Kindly stop this topi drama. The 6 billion figure is wrong and it have been increased ever since. Also the dams are not built by your money and you cannot own them. Did KPK government made these dams or what?? The royalty is given on Profits and despite the loses government is giving you royalty. Despite the fact Federal Government is bearing the Electricity theft cost which accounts to 40 percent in KPK and 95 percent in FATA where no one wants to pay and Federal government pay your bills in excess of more than 40 Billion Rupees and still you are not happy. Last but not least that it is a complete lie that thousands of Kilometers of land is submerged as the place where the dam is made that place is not much arable and mostly the land was taken away after reclaiming unarable land.
@Bilal: bhai recently pervez khatak got a house in DHA lahore for his family . why cant you see that in reality even PTI knows whats the best place to live in is Lahore.GO check from your sources
@ Awan: Full royalty on profits??? KPK govt is paid just 6 billion rupees annually since 90s. Federal govt isn't doing any favor by giving just 6 billion. Thousands of square kilometers of arable land is submerged in dam water and adjacent lakes, which could have generated produce worth billions if crops were cultivated there. So, its a loss incurred by KPK people. Federal govt owe more than 100 billion rupees to KPK govt in this matter according to the arbitration comission report. A simple google search will help you in this regard
@Paki:
hes not trying to be funny, ur just ignorant.
I being a KPK resident fully agree to Khawaja Asif comments. Power infrastructure in KPK is really poor at the moment. Its a normal practice here to shut down grid station during slightest of rain or storm. Falling transmission lines is a common sight after every rain/storm. And adding to the woes Taliban attacks on electricity is has further deteriorated the situation in last few years. Both the parties i.e PTI and PMLN should focus on ground realities rather than blaming each other. PTI should keep eye on local WAPDA staff where bills are sent without checking the meters.
@Bilal: First of all the dams worth more than 20 billion US Dollars in your province are being built by Federal Government and you are taking full royalty on Profits and also keep in mind that KPK have highest Electricity thiefs in Pakistan where adjacent regions of FATA dont even pay 5 percent of what they use. So dont take ownerIship of any project where you have contributed none. It is the tax payers of Sindh and Punjab who contributed and dams were made otherwise KP have the lowest Tax collection in Pakistan where you contribute lowest in term of revenue. IF KPK wants ownership of Dams then pay Federal government all the money it took to built these project otherwise stop talking like that.
N league Govt may turn out to be worst than PPP
when did Taliban terrorists attacked Grid Stations ??? lol Khawaja Trying to be funny :D
@iqbal: You forgot about the power station blown into bits by Taliban and it was almost two months ago. Kindly refresh your memory by looking at the ET archives. The KPK government is right to ask for cheaper electricity, I dont understand the logic of having the electricity prices the same all over the country. In developed countries the further you are from the generation point the more money you pay for one single unit of electricity. KPK has the highest instances of electricity thefts in the country. I have been told numerous times by residents of KPK thats its our water hence why should we pay the bills. Control the theft and electricity will be made available to the whole province.
@iqbal: Muhammadi grid station was destroyed in april by our taliban friends resulting in loss of nearly a billion try searching news first.
@iqbal: Do you mean 2 months back, KPK had no loadshedding?
@iqbal: True that
@iqbal: Agree. All of the sudden Drama has started by N league Govt.
@Bilal: Only an MoU has been signed til now. The project will materialize once the agreement has been inked. And that will not happen overnight. 2-3 years once the agreement gets signed.
Respectable Khawaja Sahib, they are just asking for their due and approved share, at least give them that. They produce much more and cheap electricity then what they require so I would second them if they are protesting against 18 hours of load shedding. I think their call is quite fair.
In politics, a TV talk show does not count for intentions. But lets wait and see, I will be surprised if PML-N Govt. supports PTI.
OMG open lies. All these stations were fine 2 months back. O Allah save us from the pityless and lying leaders
KPK Govt has taken some initiatives to install 1000 Megawatt electricity with the help of Glaxay group investment, I hope that goes through if it does I tell you what KPK would be the place to live without electricity outages, Meanwhile Federal Govt should not test KPK Govt and people of KPK for 2 months by not giving them electricity as they deserve, Also Royalty should be given to KPK.
PM and his ministers just sharing reasons instead of fixing the issues.