Pioneering hydro project: PM opens 84MW project in AJK

Prime minister says his government had cleared 50% of the circular debt.

MUZAFFARABAD:

Inaugurating the first private hydroelectric run-of-river power plant in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday said that all resources would be utilised to overcome the country’s crippling energy crisis.

While conceding that purchasing electricity from neighbouring India was an option, the premier said his government’s priority was to tap existing water, coal and wind resources within the country to generate much needed energy, essential for the country’s prosperity.

The prime minister was speaking at the launch of a 84 MW Bong Escape Hydroelectric run-of-river power project situated along downstream Jhelum River in Mirpur, Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Recalling that his government had inherited a burgeoning electricity crisis which had given birth to social and economic ills, the prime minister said his government had cleared 50% of the circular debt, while the remaining would be cleared soon to ensure substantial decrease in load-shedding.

Congratulating the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir on the completion of the power project, Sharif said that “the hearts of the people of  Pakistan and Azad Kashmir beat in tandem and Kashmir is the life nerve of Pakistan.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2013.