The National Assembly was informed Friday that the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project will be made operational by June next year.
Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali told the House during question hour that Neelum-Jhelum project is very critical and the government and the prime minister are making efforts to complete it in a timely manner.
He said these will also help avoid future water crisis. He pointed out that the government is working on different projects in this regard and said that land acquisition process for Diamer-Bhasha Dam is going on.
He said the Patan Hydropower Project will be constructed on 1,943 acres of land. He said that at present, the project is at study stage and work is ongoing in joint venture with a German company. Abid Sher Ali informed the House that Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa have some reservations on Akhori Dam. He said that work will start on the project after creating a consensus. He said the dam can be completed in five years once a consensus is created and the federal government is fully ready to cooperate in this regard.
Parliamentary Secretary for National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination Dr Darshan told the House that Federal Health Regulatory Authority is being formed to regulate the fees being charged by the private doctors and hospitals in Islamabad. He said that steps have been taken to improve health facilities in public sector hospitals in the federal capital. To a question, he said there is no proposal under consideration of the government to impose ban on the private practice of the government doctors in Islamabad.
Replying to a question, Abid Sher Ali said that the government is working on several energy projects and the load-shedding in the country will end in 2018. He said that when the present government took over the total power generation was 14,500 MW; now it is 17,000 MW. He said it will be increased to 25,000 MW in 2018. He said that projects of 3,600 MW of electricity are RLNG based. He said that due to better management, load shedding has decreased from 18 hours a day in the past to six hours a day.
To a question, he said that environmental impact assessment has been carried out for the coal based energy projects and these will be executed according to the international standards.
