The Senate was informed on Tuesday that 16 power projects with aggregate capacity of 2,685 megawatts are currently in different stages of completion.
Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali told the House during question hour that there were also nine other long-term projects envisaging generation of 19,951 megawatts of electricity.
He said currently there was shortfall of 2,800 to 5,500 megawatts depending upon weather conditions and demand versus generation. Responding to another question, he said WAPDA was regularly making payment of Rs 6 billion annually to KP since 1991 as royalty on hydel profit for hydel power stations located in the province.
He, however, said that WAPDA could not make full payments during financial years 2011-12 and 2012-13 due to inadequate release of funds. During current financial year, WAPDA has made payment of Rs 2.1 billion to KP and it will try to pay arrears of Rs 4.8 billion in monthly instalments to clear arrears in two years.
Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Resources Jam Kamal told the House that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was consistently involved with Iran and their international partners to explore ways and means for early implementation of IP gas project.
The House was told in a written reply that the prime minister’s low cost housing scheme envisaged 1,000 clusters of 500 houses each to ensure provision of affordable housing to poor people in the country.
These houses will be constructed on different models including public private partnership. The Bank will provide loan to the poor people at eight percent markup and the remaining markup will be borne by the government.