The demand of Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) units, batteries, power inverters and generators has increased manifold due to scheduled and unscheduled power outages in urban and rural areas here.
A market survey conducted by APP revealed that nowadays, these products are being sold in the market on exorbitant rates. The shortage of batteries has also increased the miseries of the customers, as 200-ampare battery is being sold on black rates for Rs. 14000 while its company price is Rs 11,500.
According to the suppliers the demand of UPS has increased manifold as the citizens are expecting the worst loadshedding during this summer. This year, UPS prices range between Rs 6,000 and Rs 18,000, depending on capacity of the unit. Various varieties of UPS are available in the market. A dealer of imported and local-made UPS, said the demand for the locally made UPS has almost doubled while the demand for Chinese UPS is noticing downward trend as it is costly while on the other hand, its repair charges are also high.
When asked about the demand of these items, he said it is increasing day by day. Most of the consumers said they have to cut their expenses to save money to get new power back-up equipments as there is no immediate solution to the energy crisis.
Other options are being used by the citizens and the demand of inverters and gas-generators has also increased considerably. An inverter is available in the market at minimum Rs 2500 price while the gas-generator is being sold at Rs 30,000.
Drone attacks can’t eradicate terrorism: Iftikhar: Information Minister of Khyber PakhtunKhwa Mian Iftikhar Hussain said terrorism cannot be eradicated through drone attacks. Talking to a private news channel, he said drone technology should be provided to Pak Army which can combat the terrorists. The Information Minister said stable Afghanistan is in Pakistan’s interest while weak Afghanistan would be center of problems.
He added that Afghanistan-US strategic agreement is not new development because US has been staying in Afghanistan since long. However, “We should keep in mind that stable Afghanistan is in our own interest”, he commented. He said US already has been existing in Afghanistan under UN’s resolution working together with NATO. It may be recalled US will support Afghanistan in financial and military sectors for ten years under the strategic pact after withdrawal, he added.