ISLAMABAD - The Rental Power Plants would significantly enhance the cost of production which will make survival of the industry more difficult and create more problems for the fragile economy. Business community on Friday said the Government should fully protect the national interests before going for the RPPs, as the price of electricity produced by them would reportedly go further up by 31-45 percent. Zahid Maqbool, President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry while chairing a meeting here, said, There is no enough gas available in the country to meet the RPPs needs. While no arrangements has been made for transporting of the alternative fuel or furnace oil to the RPPs, which could plunge this whole project into trouble and waste precious resources, he added. He stressed that instead of resorting expensive power projects like RPPs, the Government should pay more heed on the cheap energy sources including hydro, biomass, coal, solar, wind, and nuclear etc. He said that the present energy mix of 65 percent thermal and 35 percent hydel was not affordable which should be balanced by moving towards an economical alternative energy sources. Zahid Maqbool said China is producing more than 50 per cent of its electricity through coal while India is producing 40 per cent. Unfortunately, Pakistan is generating less than one per cent of the power from coal despite having the coal reserves of around 185 billion tons only in Thar, which are reportedly equivalent to 618 billion barrels of crude oil. The businessmen said unfortunately, the Government has not yet come up with a comprehensive and long-term energy plan to meet the demands. They urged that the Government should take immediate measures to draw up a blueprint to meet the countrys energy requirements for five, 10 or 15 years from now. They said that the acute power and gas deficit has not only crippled the countrys industry and agriculture but also inflicted injury to whole economy. It is also increasing unemployment as a number of industries have almost been closed, they observed.