Govt 'taking steps' to overcome energy crisis

ISLAMABAD (APP) - Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf has said that all out efforts were being made to overcome the energy crisis. The minister while giving assurance to the Senate Standing Committee on Water and Power said that keeping in view the situation, the government is bringing in rental power generation units and maximizing generation from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to augment the existing supply.

He said a debt of Rs400b had created problems for the power generation sector out of which Rs260b are receivables of the eight power companies while Rs140b has to be paid to the oil companies. The power generation companies had no money to pay to the oil cos due to which the situation went from bad to worse, he added.

The minister said low discharges from Tarbela and Mangla dams due to preservation of water for Rabi crops were another problem due to which the power generation suffered. He informed that provision of gas to the power generation companies has been placed on top priority. The Senate body thoroughly discussed the issue of load shedding and energy crisis in the country and future plans of power generation that have been planned by the Water and Power Ministry.

The Committee underlined the need for chalking out emergency plans to increase power generation capacity to meet the growing demands of electricity in the country and overcome the energy crisis, which the country is facing at present.

Members of the Committee were of the view that a proactive approach was required to address the issue on both short and long term basis. The Committee directed the Ministry to expedite work on power generation units being installed in different parts of the country. It was also decided to visit Quetta and see progress on the 'Sheikh Manda' Power Generation Unit.

The Committee assured all out support to the ministry in overcoming various problems being faced with regard to increasing the power generation capacity and bottlenecks in way of plans chalked out by the Ministry to address the 'important issue.

The meeting was attended by Senator Muhammad Amjad Abbas, Ms. Agha Pari Gul, Abdul Razak A. Thahim, Maulana Rahat Hussain, Maulana Gul Naseeb, Raza Muhammad Raza and Dr. Javaid Laghari besides the Federal Minister for Water and Power and senior officials of the ministry.