Water and Power Ministry on Thursday informed the National Assembly that as many as 1,776 retired and in service army personnel are working in Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) at present. In replying to questions forwarded by the lawmakers, the ministry informed the House that at present 1,176 retired and in service army personnel are working in Wapda at present against 1,820 previous.
According to details, four retired Brigadiers, one Colonel, two Lieutenant Colonel, 12 Major and five captain and a number of other lower cadre retired army officers are working in different capacity in Wapda. The detail also reveals that one Lieutenant Colonel, seven major and five Subidar-Major along-with a large number of lower cadre in service army officials are also working in Wapda.
The ministry also informed the House that government has planned to connect 1,094MW electricity with an estimated cost of 805 million dollar under five private power projects till the end of June 2009. The House was also informed that four power projects with capacity of 751MW electricity have been commissioned since taking over of charge by the new government.
These projects included Malakand-III Hydro Power Project with capacity of 81 MW, Attock General Rawalpindi with generating capacity of 150MW, Rehabilitation of generating plant by Pepco with capacity of 300MW and Korangi, Karachi with capacity of 220MW.
On a supplementary question, Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Asharraf said that there is no unannounced load-shedding at present and within two-week the situation would further improve. The ministry further provided details that 35.240MW electricity was generated in the country through renewable energy sources during 2007-08.
It was further added that several other proposals are under consideration for using renewable energy source for electrification in the urban areas, which include solar street lighting, solar lighting for billboards, micro wind turbines for billboard etc and the public sector has already installed few micro winds turbines on billboards in Karachi for lighting purpose.
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan said that CDA has planned to establish a citizen Park with the cost of Rs 1,254 million at F-9 Park to provide international standard level facilities to the citizens.
He informed the House that three toll plazas are being developed at different sites in Islamabad on Built-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis by two firms. The firms would develop the toll plazas and handover to the CDA. The total assets worth Rs 355.569 million would deposit with the CDA as sum of Rs 687 million as BOT fee on monthly basis during five years of agreement.