Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Saturday directed Water and Power Minister Naveed Qamar to make sure that the people and the industrial sector were put to minimum possible load shedding of electricity. He passed on these instructions in a meeting with the water and power minister who called on him at the PM’s House to discuss the overall electricity demand and supply situation in the country. The prime minister directed the minister to tour all the provinces to ascertain their requirements with the purpose of ensuring that the people of the country were not subject to unscheduled load shedding during the winter season. Gilani also asked Qamar to explore new avenues of power generation on pro-active basis to overcome the prevailing energy deficiency in the country at the earliest. He also praised the ministry for undertaking new hydel and renewable energy projects by using immense hydel and wind resources of the country. The water and power minister informed Gilani that the ministry would give a detailed briefing to him on the mega hydel and renewable energy power projects early next week. Qamar said the projects had already attracted large foreign investment offers for the power generation projects of the government. The minister said the Asian Development Bank had already formalised assuming the role of leading financial adviser for the Diamer Bhasha Dam. The minister said the work on Kohala-Jhelum power project was in full swing which would generate more than 1100MW of electricity for the national grid. He said another ambitious power generation project at Patrand, Muzaffarabad, would soon be taken up by the ministry.
PM wants minimum electricity load shedding
