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ISLAMABAD,
Nov 5 (APP): Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf on Wednesday said
all out efforts were being made to overcome the energy crisis and the
load‑shedding would end by December 2009. 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
Pproducers (IPPs) to augment the existing supply.
He said
that a debt of Rs. 400 billion had created problems for the power generation
sector out of which Rs. 260 billion are receivables of the eight power companies
while Rs. 140 billion had to be paid to the oil companies.
The power
generation companies had no money to pay to the oil companies 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 list.
The
Senate body thoroughly discussed the issue of load shedding and energy crisis in
the country and the future plans of power generation that have been planned by
the Ministry of Water and Power.
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 the moment.
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 its all out support to the Ministry in overcoming the various
problems being faced with regard to increasing the power generation capacity and
bottlenecks in the way of the plans chalked out by the Ministry to address the
most 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.
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