The Minister for Water and Power, Pervez Ashraf, on Friday told the National Assembly that Faisalabad district was on top of the list in theft of transformers, with 911 during last three years (2007-2010). The regional electricity supplying companies had lost 1920 transformers during the tenure, he said.
A written reply, given by the Minister in response to a question, stated that Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fesco) had lost 309 transformers in 2007-08, 277 in 2008-09 and 325 transformers in 2009-10. It further said that investigations were underway as FIRs had been registered and recoveries had been made from individual consumers.
Fesco was followed by Mepco and Gepco which lost 247 and 213. Other companies whose transformers were stolen were Pesco (187) Lesco (127) Iesco (108) Sepco 112 and Qesco (15), the Minister told the National Assembly in a written reply. Interestingly, no transformers were stolen from Tribal Electric Supply Company (Tesco), said the Minister.
In response to another question, he informed the assembly that a pilot project to generate electricity through coal gasification by utilising Thar coal reserves is expected to start by next month.
He, however, clarified that it was an indigenous project of the country and no formal agreement has so far been made for foreign assistance in power generation through Thar coal reserves. Responding to several other queries of the legislators regarding government''s steps to overcome energy issues, the minister said that the project headed by renowned nuclear scientist Dr Samar Muhabark Mand was in an advanced stage. It was jointly launched by Planning Commission, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and National Engineering and Scientific Commission last year to produce electricity. In response to a question from Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, Pervez said that provinces were free to set up their own power generation plants as there is no constitutional bar on any such decision.