Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said that the actual cost of the Peshawar Rapid Bus Transit is Rs 33 billion and an additional Rs 22 billion would be spent on the allied services including the upgradation of seven feeder routes, shopping and parking plazas and land acquisition and other facilities adding that his government would successfully put on ground different hydro projects for production of 4747 MW of electricity during his tenure in office.
He said his government has planned seventeen industrial zones in the province. However work on Hattar Industrial Zone, Motorway Industrial Park and DI Khan Industrial City was being started. The destiny of the province would have been changed, had the federal government given the province its constitutional right of royalty on oil, gas and hydel power generation.
He was briefing the media after a MoU signing ceremony for producing 610 MW of electricity through a combined power generation projects here at Chief Minister House Peshawar. Provincial Minister for Energy Muhammad Atif and others were present on the occasion.
Pervez Khattak said that his government placed the hydel power generation at the top of its priority list in view of the perpetual loadshedding and energy crisis in the country. His government had put on ground different projects for the energy production. Work on different project of hydel power generation with a capacity of 4000 MW of electricity would be started during the tenure of present government. Production of 105 MW of electricity has already been realized as against the previous government performance which only started work on 56 MW of electricity during their five year tenure. He reminded the media that hydro power generation was the cheapest source of energy. The KP had a vast potential but our constant demand to exploit these resources fell on deaf ears. The federal government never took pain on our repeated request that he attributed to the willful dishonesty of the federation while on the other hand the expensive source of coal was being launched in Punjab that will keep the price of electricity high and it also posed on environmental threat to the region.
Had the federal government exploited the perennial water resources of the province, the country would have had sufficient electricity to meets its future requirements. He said that industirialzation was in infancy and the province had power to run these industrial units adding that the provincial government would in the foreseeable future successfully launch different projects of hydel power generation for the production of more than 4000 mega watt of electricity within estimation cost of $ 12 billion. He said the province of its own resources would launch different projects for the production of 214 MW of electricity, with the help of Asian Development Bank 300 MW of electricity, with the help of World Bank 179 MW of electricity and through backing of local community 90 MW of electricity. Similarly the private sector would launch projects for the production of 668 MW of electricity wherein projects of the production 87 MW of electricity was about to be launch.
The CM said his government had agreed with Frontier Works Organization for production of 506 MW of electricity through two projects. Projects producing 1978 MW of electricity had become a part of CPEC and assured that his government would lay down necessary infrastructure for the future requirements of electricity in the country.
He said that his government was holding a road show in Beijing to market its different hydel power potential schemes. He sought the help of the federal government adding that the federal government should ensure the constitutional right of the province on oil, gas and royalty on net hydel power and assured he would put his province on the expeditious road to development adding that his government has already developed understanding with different foreign investors for the installation of combined cycle for conversion of natural gas for the production of electricity in Hattar, Motorway and DI Khan industrial zones. The Canadian government has also assured him of 100 MW of electricity through solar panels in Hattar.
The CM also gave details about the Rapid Bus Transit, its cost and the facilities the project would bring along. He said that the project would give one solution to all the traffic congestion in Peshawar city adding that the main corridor would cost Rs 33 billion and there would be seven feeder routes interlinking the whole Peshawar city and the people would have no problem of commuting from one place to another in the whole city. He said that parking and shopping plazas would cost Rs 653 million, bike sharing Rs 132 million, advertisement Rs 2 billion, compensation to the affectees of the schemes would be Rs 1118 millions, while utilities would cost Rs 2 billion, acquisition of land Rs 2313 millions and 9 meter and 12 meter coaches would cost Rs 8 billion. He said that installed infrastructure, the services and the operational cost would stand $ 0.5 billion and the project would be the first golden standard third generation project in the entire subcontinent, he concluded.
