ISLAMABAD: Basit Zaman, Chief Executive Officer, Islamabad Electric Supply Company has said that work on many energy projects was in full swing and load shedding for industry would be eliminated by the end of November this year. He was talking to a delegation of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry that called on him in his office led by Khalid Iqbal Malik, President. Khalid Javed, Tariq Sadiq, Ch. Waheed ud Din, Muhammad Zikria A Zia and other local industrialists were in the delegation.
Basit Zaman said that due to energy shortage, local industries will have to face load shedding for few months. However, he assured that by the end of November this year, energy crisis would be resolved and industry would be provided uninterrupted power supply. He said T&D losses in IESCO were in single digit and there was no electricity theft in the cities.
He directed the IESCO relevant authorities to improve the maintenance of feeders in Industrial Areas to ensure regular power supply to the industry. He said ICCI should provide list of processing industries and IESCO would consider exempting them from load shedding. He assured that ICCI proposal for change of load shedding schedule for industry would be given due consideration for implementation.
Speaking at the occasion, Khalid Iqbal Malik, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that government has announced uninterrupted power supply for industry, but the industries in Islamabad were facing 4 hours daily load shedding due to which their production was badly suffering. He said that current load shedding schedule from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm was causing losses to the local industry and IESCO should reschedule it from 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm in order to minimize the losses of industrial sector.
He said the processing industry was suffering huge losses due to load shedding and IESCO should exempt it from power shut downs. He said IESCO should also fix specific date of month for taking meter reading of industrial meters as taking monthly meter readings on different dates was creating billing problems for industrialists.
Khalid Javed, Tariq Sadiq, Ch. Waheed ud Din, Zikria A Zia and other industrialists also apprised the CEO, IESCO of the problems being faced by the local industry due to load shedding and urged that IESCO should minimize load shedding in industrial areas.
