MANSHERA - Federal Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir Khan here Monday said the federal government was promoting renewable and environmentally friendly energy sources for sustainable economic development and prosperity of the people.
He said all renewable energy sources including wind, hydropower, coal, solar and bioenergy were being promoted in order to make Pakistan self-sufficient in electricity for speedy economic and agriculture growth and sustainable development inevitable for people’s prosperity. Addressing a function after the inauguration of 220/765KV grid station at Swan Maira here, which would be constructed with an estimated cost of Rs24 billion in one year, the minister said the mega project would significantly help improve power voltage and provide uninterrupted power supply to agriculture, industrial and domestic consumers.
He said 1,088 kanal land has been acquired for the grid station, adding it was part of the mega energy infrastructure development project worth Rs132 billion under which transmission lines between Dasu Kohistan-Manshera and Islamabad-Manshera would be laid through NTDC. Khurram Dastgir said the World Bank would financially assist in the execution of these mega projects in the Hazara division.
He said these projects would generate many job opportunities for local people and professionals including engineers and technicians of Manshera. The federal minister said that 132 KV grid stations at Bafa, Bakaryal, Ghari Habibullah and the remaining selected areas of Manshera district would also be constructed to improve voltage and curb loadshedding. He directed Managing Director NTDC to prepare feasibility studies of these grid stations at the earliest so that practical work could be started on it.
He said the PMLN had the credit to establish Hazara Power Electricity Supply Company to address energy issues locally and expedite the pace of development here. Khurram Dastgir said the government strongly believed in uniformed development of the country and had started scores of energy projects in different cities including Faisalabad and Thar to facilitate people. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, he said work on halted energy projects had been restarted, adding the prime minister would shortly visit Thar for the inauguration of 2,000MW coal electricity generated projects there.
