ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif has said that the power system damaged by the terror activities is being restore and loadshedding will be decreased to eight hours in the rural and six hours in urban areas.
The minister, addressing a news conference on power supply situation, said that zero loadshedding would be ensured for industries in the next two to three days and the security of power installations had been boosted up.
An inquiry has also been ordered into the power breakdown which will submit its report within forty eight hours, he said, adding that the USAID and China State Grid had been requested for technical assistance to avoid complete blackouts in future.
The minister said that hydel power generation is also gradually increasing after reopening of canals. He said the release of water from Tarbela and Mangla will bring six thousand megawatt of electricity to the system.
Khawaja Asif ruled out any power crisis due to shortage of oil. He said twelve cargoes have been booked through the Pakistan State Oil which will start arriving from Tuesday. He said his ministry owe around 170 billion rupees to the PSO and “we are trying to pay off the amount in instalments”.
Khawaja Asif said that the federal government would not stop supplying addition power to K-Electric from the national grid until a new agreement is reached with the company. He said that the government’s agreement with K-Electric, which supplies electricity to Karachi, ended on Sunday midnight.
Asif said that the government would renegotiate the agreement, adding until then the situation would remain the same as the government would not stop supply of 650MW to the company. But he said under the new agreement the government would ensure that there should be equitable sharing of power load shedding by every city in the country.
He said it is utmost effort of the government to ensure equitable load shedding from Karachi to Peshawar as per the directions of the Supreme Court. He pointed out the country is faced with the issue of power load shedding and it will take two to three years to address the issue. Load shedding is expected to end by summer of 2017.
