Peshawar  -  The 17th Board meeting of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hydel Development Fund (HDF) was held here on Wednesday with the caretaker Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Muhammad Azam Khan, in the chair.

Caretaker Provincial Minister for Finance, Ahmed Rasool, Advisor to CM on Energy and Power, Dr Sarfaraz Ali, Chief Secretary Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, Additional Chief Secretary Zubair Qureshi, administrative secretaries of the concerned departments, and other board members attended the meeting.

Besides reviewing progress on the decisions of the last board meeting, the forum accorded conditional approval to the proposed funding for hydel development projects for the fiscal year 2023-24.

The caretaker Chief Minister Azam Khan, on this occasion, directed the concerned authorities to take necessary steps to operationalize the province’s own Transmission and Grid Company, ensuring the appointment of the chief executive officer of the company as early as possible for the purpose.

He termed the establishment of the Provincial government’s own Transmission and Grid Company as a significant move to improve the power supply system in the province and stated that its operationalization would substantially reduce the province’s dependence on WAP DA infrastructure.

Azam Khan further directed the authorities to immediately make the newly completed hydropower projects functional. He added that a feasible strategy in consultation with all relevant stakeholders should be devised for this purpose.

He emphasized that public money had been spent on these projects, and their benefits should reach the public without any delay. 

These hydropower stations, once operationalized, will not only help alleviate the energy crisis but also increase provincial revenues, he noted. He also directed the relevant authorities to ensure the completion of all ongoing hydropower projects within the stipulated time frames.