Early completion of energy projects govt’s top priority: CM

Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif has that early completion of energy projects is the top priority of the government and that is why work on fast-track basis is being done on energy projects all over Pakistan.

In a meeting with Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) Chairman Lt Gen (r) Muzammil Hussain here on Sunday, he said that during the last four years, hectic efforts have been made to increase electricity generation and that today, a number of energy projects are near completion to produce thousands of megawatts of electricity.

The chief minister said that three gas-powered energy generation projects of an accumulative capacity of 3600 megawatts were being completed in record time and that the government had saved Rs 12 billion of the public exchequer by ensuring transparency and high quality in the projects.

Speaking on the occasion, the WAPDA chairman said that hydropower projects of 2,485 megawatts would be completed by mid-2018 and that the authority had adopted a three-dimensional strategy to deal with the energy crisis: completion of under-construction projects on priority basis, initiation of construction work on new projects in short periods of time, and the transformation of WAPDA into an active and dynamic organisation.

For the last seven months, he said, work on the Neelum-Jehlum Hydropower Project, Tarbela 4th Extension Hydropower Project, and Golen Gol Hydropower Project was being done under the aforementioned strategy.

He said that the first phase of the Kachhi Canal Project -I would also be completed by  the end of the current year, asserting that it would irrigate 72,000 acres of land in District Dera Bugti of Balochistan. Construction work on Kurram Tangi Dam Project was started last month, he said, and added that WAPDA was trying hard to award the contract of the main civil works of Mohmand Dam and Diamer-Bhasha Dam by the end of 2017.