Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly (NA) Parliametary Committee on Water and Power has been told that 100MW Quaid-e-Azam Solar Power Project is generating only 18 percent electricity of its total capacity and all the solar power projects are yielding expensive electricity.

The committee, which met at the Parliament House on Thursday with Muhammad Arshad Khan Leghari, was told that per unit tariff for the said project was fixed at Rs 17 and later it was slashed to Rs 10 per unit. State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali told the committee that the provincial government was not cooperating in purchase of land for establishing a new grid station in KP. “Load shedding duration is increasing and load is increasing on transmission lines,” he said.

Water and Power Secretary Younas Dhaga told lawmakers that the Bhasha Dam would be constructed out of national resources. “We will not wait for any foreign funding in this respect. This project will cost Rs 1,400 billions, he said, and added that 100,000MW electricity could be generated from the Thar Coal project, which was sufficient to meet the energy needs of the country for 300 years.

Briefing the committee about other energy projects, the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) authorities said work on 35 projects was in progress. They said the first power project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would start production in November and several projects having 864MW generation capacity would start functioning by the end of 2018. It was shared that 15 sugar mills had presented their recommendations for installing power projects worth 1,512MW generation capacity. The National Transmission And Despatch Company (NTDC) managing director the committee that 12,000MW would be added to the national grid by 2018.