Federal Minister for Water and Power, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, has said that five power plants would become functional within three weeks which will curtail load shedding in Pakistan.
With summer around the corner, the power outage has increased to more than 3000 Mega Watt. Punjab’s rural areas are witnessing at least sixteen hours of load shedding whereas urban areas are being subjected to a minimum of six hours of power outages on daily basis.
Water and Power Minister, while talking to a private news channel, claimed that the electricity shortfall was temporary. Stating the reason behind the power outage, he said that two power plants were closed due to some technical reasons, whereas routine maintenance work is underway in four other power plants. These plants will become functional by the third week of April which will help contain the 2300 MW electricity load-shedding.
Hydel electricity has been reduced to 1300-1500 MW from 2600 MW because of above-mentioned reasons. With the right amount and level of water during summer, Government will try to overcome the energy crisis. The Minister added that new power plants projects, such as Nandi Pur Project, would be completed in May and together these plants would add more than 5000 MW electricity to the national grid.
A couple of days ago, Punjab Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif, said that promise of load-shedding coming to an end will be fulfilled before the start of new year. According to a Gilani Research Foundation Survey carried out by Gallup & Gilani Pakistan, 62% Pakistanis say that electricity load shedding has decreased in their areas this year when compared to the previous year.
