KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has regretted the refusal of Wapda in purchasing electricity produced by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government from different hydel power projects and the delaying tactics for signing power purchasing agreement.
He was presiding over a meeting at his office in Chief Minister Secretariat Peshawar. Provincial Minister for Energy Muhammad Atif Khan, Chief Secretary Muhammad Azam Khan, Secretary Energy Muhammad Naeem Khan, Head of SSU Sahibzada Saeed and others attended.
The meeting focused on the progress of different projects of hydel power and made a number of decisions. Addressing the meeting the Chief Minister said that the denial of WAPDA to put the hydel power into the main grid and the delay to make a power purchasing agreement has led us to the believe that the intention of WAPDA was neither noble nor pro people.
The people behind all this were interested in purchasing expensive electricity that would overburden the already sagging poor under the already high price of electricity in the country. He had made up his mind to take it to the CCI, he added.
The Chief Minister directed for the commencement of the process for the solarization of 8000 schools, 5600 houses and 4000 mosques throughout the province. The entire process should be completed in two phases. He was told that the new discovery in oil and gas in Kohat would pitch additional royalty of one billion rupees annually to the provincial kitty.
Pervez Khattak talked about the hydel power projects during his short tenure in office that included projects to be completed in short term, projects with mid-term goals and the long term guidelines and putting on ground hydro power projects in the province.
Under the short term plan, 57 megawatt of electricity had been produced and ready for consumption just of three projects costing USD124 million and under the mid-term plan, seven projects costing USD673 million would produce 315.8 megawatt of electricity.
The long term projects costing USD11,150 million would generate 4003 megawatt of electricity through different projects. These projects would lead the province to support other provinces in overcoming the power shortage and in the process the whole exercise would widen the resource base of the province.
Pervez Khattak directed to immediately start the first phase of solarization that included schools, hospitals, mosques and houses throughout the province. He also directed to plan the shifting of micro-hydro power projects to the respective communities without any delay. He approved another 650 micro hydel power projects and directed to accelerate work on them.
He also approved the extension of surplus power produced by the province to different public sector entities, hospitals, lift irrigation schemes and private sector industries adding that the provincial government spent billions of rupees on the production of electricity through different projects but it was ironic that the power stations did not get connected to the national grid even it was yet to put power purchasing agreement in place. That is the issue he would take to the CCI meeting.