Sindh government will energise 795 villages involving a cost of Rs 10,000 million under Village Electrification Programme in Sindh while phase II to provide electrification facilities throughout Sindh province under Chief Minister's directives through elected representatives of respective areas.
This was decided in a meeting of Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) held under the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary (Development) Munawer Opel here Thursday. The meeting reviewed the progress of the first phase of village electrification programme under which 1855 villages have been approved and Rs 1800 million released for this purpose.
In the first phase, a total of 1855 villages were approved out of which 963 villages energised while development works for electrification of remaining 892 villages were in full swing. The Chief Engineer (Technical/Director) Hesco in a detail presentation informed that in a total of 126,758 sq.km service area excluding Karachi in 22 districts of Sindh province having total numbers of 1487,152 customers, a total of 1268 villages have been electrified since 2006-07 to 2009-10 for which HESCO has received funds for development works.
Out of Rs 1800 million for 963 electrified villages, over Rs 1059.200 million were spent during the present government. Accordingly 541 villages energised up to December 2009 at a cost of Rs 526.960 million while Rs 532.240 million will be spent on remaining 422 villages.
Additional Chief Secretary (Dev) Munawer Opel directed the sponsors to ensure that poor villagers are not charged higher meter cost and they should monitor the Hesco activities for better performance. He said a committee, including representatives of Hesco, P&D Department (Chief Energy) should be constituted in the I & P department to visit the sites of completed schemes and all works thus be carried out by Hesco.
The Secretary Irrigation & Power, Shuja Ahmed Junejo said that Chief Minister Sindh is keenly monitoring the "Village Electrification programme" in Sindh and regularly inquires about progress and status of the programme. He said that a team of electric Inspectors in Power wing of I&P department would check villages electrified under phase-1. He agreed to provide logistic facilities to verification teams.
The meeting was attended, among others, by Secretary I&P Shuja Ahmed Junejo, Karim Bakhsh Sheikh, Saeed Ahmed Sethar, Dr Noorul Haque, Iqbal Ahsan Zaidi, Deen Muhammad Talpur, Abida Lodhi and concerned officers of Hesco, P&D and Finance department.
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