A pleasant shock : Centre to help fund K-P power projects: Abid Sher Ali

Cheques given to landowners whose property was used to construct Thana grid station

BATKHELA: State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali said the Centre would provide funds to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief minister for future hydel power projects.

He said this while addressing a cheque distribution ceremony for owners who sold land for the construction of a grid station in Thana, Malakand. The event was held at the Political House in Malakand on Wednesday.



He said the project was completed late as the K-P government failed to provide land immediately, adding funds were released on time.

While answering a question, he said authorities would start work on another grid station in Batkhela in two months, provided land was made available on time.  He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had relaxed several taxes for the people of K-P and Balochistan to promote business and industry. The minister said he wanted to end unemployment.

Grid station

Ali added the new grid station in Thana would solve electricity issues in various districts. He said the PML-N government had started initiatives to cope with the power requirement in the country. The minister stipulated all these projects would end the power crisis in the country.

According to Ali, Nawaz would lay the foundation stone of a massive power project in Bhaloki. He said the government recovered billions of rupees in money which was considered lost to the national exchequer. “Significant savings have been made in several projects.”

Earlier Malakand DC Agha Ali Abbas told Ali the Thana facility had been constructed on 300 kanals of land.  The land was procured for Rs570 million and cheques were distributed among 37 landowners. PML-N’s Sobia Khan, Senator Nisar Khan, and PTI MNAs and MPAs were also present.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2015.