11000, MW electricity to be added in national grid by June 2018: Leghari

ISLAMABAD, Dec 26 (APP):Minister for Power Division, Awais Ahmed Leghari on Tuesday said that after the completion of mega hydel-power project of Neelum Jhalum a total of 11,000 megawatt electricity would be added in the national grid by June 2018 to overcome the issue of load-shedding.
For the first time in the history of Pakistan, the government has given excess of information to the public for maintaining transparency and provision of accurate information, he said this in a launching ceremony of a mobile application “Roshan Pakistan” here in the Power Division.
He said that mobile application ‘Roshan Pakistan’ would give access to the consumers for vital information on billing and power supply situation.
Federal Minister for Power said that now after launching this App, feeder to feeder information would be collected for maintaining transparency and accountability in the country.
He said any consumer can get update through this application about billing, net metering and feeder wise information about supply of electricity. It would also serve as bill calculator.
Awais said the government was committed for protecting the consumers’ rights and empowerment.
He said this would also help to counter propaganda by elements with vested interests about quantum and instance of load-shedding in different areas of the country.
He said the app would provide information about all the ten distribution companies and any consumer can have access to it by entering his consumer number.
Replying to questions by newsmen, the minister said the power division was proud that four thousand and five hundred megawatts surplus electricity was available in the national grid.
He said in the next summer season, additional power generation would be available than its demand.Awais Leghari said the problem of overbilling would be resolved once the law on the subject passed by the Senate.
He said the law provides a punishment of three years imprisonment for overbilling and has already been passed by the National Assembly. The federal minister said that with great effort, the government has been able to bridge the demand and supply gap and there was now enough power generation available to meet the demand. He said that all efforts would be made to curtail the losses so that maximum number of consumers could be provided with uninterrupted electricity supply.
While, highlighting the main features of the mobile app, secretary power division Yousaf Nasim Khokhar said that app was bilingual to facilitate the consumers in both English and Urdu language.