Daily Times

Federal Minister for Power Khurram Dastagir Khan inaugurated 11th edition of Electrical and Electronics Industrial Exhibition on Tuesday at Expo Centre Karachi.

The 3-day IEEEP Fair 2022- organised by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Pakistan (IEEEP) Karachi centre- showcases energy efficient products and solutions of 98 national and international companies and their 500 brands. Addressing the inaugural ceremony, the federal minister said that a new avenue of progress and development was opening in Thar with immense prospects of electricity generation.

He said that coal based power generation plant being constructed by Shanghai Electric was at advance stages of completion and as much as 2000 megawatt electricity production was expected from Thar soon. The vast Tar coal reserves has enormous potential to generate thousands of megawatts of electricity while billions of dollars could be earned by exporting the coal as well, he said and regretted that such precious resources were neglected for decades and Pakistan was unable to exploit Thar coal only because of lack of determination and required skills.

Khurram Dastagir said that PML-N led federal government was proactively patronising and pursuing the Thar coal projects, two blocks of Thar coal reserves were operational and an open pit spreading on kilometres was ready. He said that Pakistan was facing a colossal humanitarian crisis due to torrential rains and floods across the country as devastation by floods was massive and millions of people have been dislocated while losses of billions of rupees had been estimated in all the provinces.

The federal minister said that he was tasked by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif to ensure uninterrupted power supply in flood affected areas particularly in Sindh and Balochistan and he was here in Sindh for seven days.

The minister expressed satisfaction that power supply system was functioning well despite massive flooding and relevant companies managed running the system in a very challenging situation. “It is a gigantic task to ensure power supply when grid stations and entire electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure were surrounded by water,” he noted adding that it was a challenge for engineers in coming days as well.

The most of the electricity infrastructure in the country was decades old and it needed to be modernised, he observed and urged the engineers to come up with innovative approach to begin Pakistan anew. “Whatever constraints there would be, we will try our best to achieve excellence by finding new ways of dealing with issues and challenges being faced by Pakistan,” Khurram Dastagir vowed. Chairman IEEEP Karachi centre Khalid Pervaiz in his welcome address said that IEEEP was trying to create linkage between all the stakeholders of engineering sector and the annual fair provide greater opportunities to pick up the latest trends gain access to the newest cutting edge products in the industry.

Convener organizing committee Ahmed Zubair Siddiqui informed that 98 companies and 500 brands had set up stalls in one of the biggest electronics and electrical fairs of the country show casing a large range of their products, merchandise and services. President IEEEP Shahid Aftab Qureshi said that main objective of organising the fair was promoting efficient energy solutions to industry. Later the federal minister for power cut the ribbon to formally inaugurate the IEEEP fair. He also visited different stalls set u in the fair to review the products and solutions being offered.