ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif has reiterated that the government would overcome power outages by the end of 2017.
Khawaja Asif said this while addressing press conference in the federal capital. He said that , said the government had shifted its priority from the Gadani-based 6,600MW coal power plants due to lack of infrastructure and the need to prioritise the ‘early harvest projects’ that could be completed before 2018.
The minister clarified that the government had not shelved the Gadani projects, adding that they “are still open” and if the private sector came forward the government would facilitate it.
Khawaja Asif’s renewed confidence to end loadshedding by the end of 2017 emanated from recent signing of agreements with China. He said Pakistan and China had signed contracts for 8,320MW projects worth $20 billion investment which would be completed between 2018 and 2020.
He said these power projects would be set up across the country without any provincial consideration. He said the Chinese investment was “a good signal for foreign investors”.
The minister said the recovery of electricity bills had increased by 3.2 per cent in first nine months of the current year and power distribution and transmission losses had dropped by one per cent compared to the same period last year.
The circular debt, he claimed, had come down by Rs70 billion than last year. He said the electricity tariff had come down by Rs4.42 per unit due to decline in oil prices in international market and they could go up again in case of increase in oil prices.
Asif said the government had ensured a peak supply of 16500MW last summer and that level would be maintained this year too. The shortfall at present is also because of the shutdown of Uch power plant due to an issue at the gas field which would be restored in a few days.
