The provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has expressed concerned over the non-payment of Rs 1.5 billion as electricity generation charges from Pehur Power Station by the federal government and decided to take this issue in the highest forum. The provincial government has also accused the federal government for not cooperating with provincial government in connection with the development of power projects.
This was stated in Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (PEDO) Board of Directors (BoD) in its 19th meeting held under the chairmanship of Sahibzada Saeed Ahmed. PEDO BoD meeting was also attended by secretary Energy & Power Engr. Naeem Khan, representatives from finance and home departments, SCCI president Haji Afzal, Enr. Latif Khan, Abdullah Shah, Ruhail Akram, Fuad Ishaq, PEDO Chief Akbar Ayub Khan.
The meeting was told that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is taking revolutionary steps towards the development of energy sector and a numbers of power projects having more than 40MW capacities are being developed in full swing. For this purpose Rs 15.3 billions have been allocated during the year 2017-18 for the development of power projects.
During the meeting Rs 15.3 billion budget for the year 2017-18 of PEDO was presented while revised budget for the year 2016-17 of Rs 10.2 billion approved. Meanwhile, members of BoD approved PEDO's developmental budget for current financial year. Moreover, the construction work on 356 mini micro hydropower projects, 84 MW Matiltan HPP, 41 MW Koto HPP, 69 MW Lawi HPP is going on in full swing. Future plan has been decided to start more power projects in province.
In addition to this, six power projects of having total capacity of 518 MW are being developed through private sector and process of awarding in final stages. Recently, one of the biggest power projects in the history of province having capacity 150 MW Sharmai HPP at Lower Dir has been awarded to private sector for implementation.