Energy shortfall: Efforts being made to overcome power crisis, says Shahbaz

New DFID Punjab head calls on chief minister.

LAHORE:

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Sunday that concerted efforts were being made to overcome the energy crisis.

He was chairing a meeting convened to review progress made on several projects in the power sector. Sharif said work on coal-fired power plants in Sahiwal had been expedited. He said the project would be completed in 2017. Sharif said the government had also been working on alternate energy power projects. He said the government had completed a 100 megawatt solar power project. Sharif said this was the largest project of its kind in the nation. He said it would be inaugurated soon. Sharif said the federal and provincial governments had decided to set up 3,600 megawatt liquefied natural gas-fired power plants in the province.

The chief minister said that the government was leaving no stone unturned to overcome the energy crisis. He said several power generation projects would become operational by 2017. Sharif said citizens had been anxiously waiting for the Chinese president to visit the country. He said the foundation stones of scores of projects would be laid during the visit. Sharif said darkness would become a thing of the past with Chinese cooperation. Sharif said a system for the transportation of coal to Sahiwal from Karachi was being formulated. He said officials from concerned departments should take speedy measures to ensure the provision of coal to power plants in Sahiwal.

Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafique promised cooperation of the department on this front. The energy additional chief secretary briefed those present on the occasion regarding the coal-fired power plants in Sahiwal. Several high-ranking officials were also present on the occasion.

New DIFD head calls on CM:

Sharif said the government had fostered a corruption-free atmosphere in the province. He was speaking to British Department for International Development Punjab Head Ben French. Matters of mutual interest including cooperation between the government and the DFID in the education, health and skill development sectors were discussed in the meeting. Sharif said no compromise had been made on quality standards, speed and transparency with regard to the execution of development projects. The chief minister praised the DFID’s cooperation on the Health Sector Reforms Roadmap. He said the scope of the Skill Development Programme, which had been initiated in four districts of south Punjab with the DFID’s assistance, would be broadened to cover the entire province. He said youngsters were being imparted scores of skills under the programme. Sharif said they were being imparted training in accordance with industrial needs. French said further cooperation between the government and the DFID would be promoted.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 30^th, 2015.