Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, showing concern over the non-payment of Rs 1.5 billion as electricity generation charges from Pehur Power Station, decided to take up the issue at the highest forum.

The Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (PEDO) Board of Directors in its 19th meeting held under the chairmanship Sahibzad Saeed Ahmed regretted that the federal government was not cooperating with provincial government in connection with 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 was approved. Meanwhile, members of the BoD approved PEDO’s developmental budget for the current financial year.

The board members noted The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was taking revolutionary steps towards the development of energy sector, and a number of power projects having more than 40MW capacity were being developed.

The meeting was informed that Rs 15.3 billion had been allocated during the year 2017-18 for the development of power projects in KP.

The board was also apprised of the progress regarding ongoing work on power projects. It was stated that three hydropower projects having a combined capacity of 56MW had entered their completion phase and would start power generation soon.

Moreover, the construction work on 356 mini micro hydropower projects, including 84MW Matiltan HPP, 41MW Koto HPP and 69MW Lawi HPP was going on in full swing. The meeting was informed that future plans had been made to start more power projects in the province.

In addition to this, six power projects of total capacity of 518MW ware being developed through private sector and process of awarding contracts was in the final stage. Recently, one of the biggest power projects in the history of province having a capacity 150MW, Sharmai HPP at Lower Dir, had been awarded to a private sector for implementation, the members were told.

PEDO BoD meeting was also attended by Energy & Power Secretary Engr Naeem Khan, representatives from the Finance and Home departments, SCCI President Haji Afzal, Engr Latif Khan, Abdullah Shah, Ruhail Akram, Fuad Ishaq and PEDO chief Akbar Ayub Khan.

Published in Daily Times, August 5^th 2017.