- PM inaugurates 760mw unit of LNG-based power plant in Jhang’s Haveli Bahadur Shah area
- ‘You just conspire in garb of sit-ins, in name of accountability or hide yourselves behind JIT’
Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Friday challenged his political opponents to compete the Pakistan Muslim League–N (PML-N) in politics, advising them to desist from hatching conspiracies and indulging in such other practices.
“You repeatedly faced electoral defeats from PML-N, and we will continue to defeat you. You cannot win elections but only conspire,” he said while addressing a public gathering after inaugurating the first unit of 1,230 megawatts Haveli Bahadur Shah Power plant here in district Jhang.
“Since you don’t have the power to win elections, you just conspire either in the garb of sit-ins or in the name of accountability,” the prime minister continued without naming any party. “Then you hide yourselves behind the JIT (Joint Investigation Team set up by the Supreme Court),” he said.
“It is cowardice. Instead, you should come and compete in politics,” Nawaz said. “The nation knows about our positive work and contribution and nation also knows well about what you have been doing for the last four years,” he said.
The prime minister said that his government would continue to pursue its agenda of development and the public services. In his address, he complimented Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif for his services for the people and the party. Earlier, Prime Minister Nawaz inaugurated the first unit of the Haveli Bahadur Shah Power Plant, adding 760 megawatts of electricity to the national grid in a move towards ending load shedding.
The environment-friendly power plant has a capacity of 1,230 megawatts through a combined cycle power plant and would fueled by the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). The prime minister also visited the control room and witnessed the plant and its functioning.
On the occasion, Prime Minister Nawaz was informed about the plant whose first unit had been made operational in a record period of only 21 months and included completion of civil works, construction of switchyard, cooling towers, fuel storage tanks and installation of gas turbine and generators.
During the briefing, the prime minister was informed that the installed unit was world’s most efficient and modern with guaranteed efficiency of 62.44% on LNG. A saving of Rs 57 billion had been achieved in the project cost as compared to the upfront tariff given by NEPRA, owing to a transparent procurement process, through international competitive bidding and PPRA laws.
He was informed that the award of the engineering procurement contract for the project led to one of the lowest contract cost per megawatt resulting in an annual saving of two billion rupees through optimum operations and management cost. The Haveli Bahadur Shah plant has also set the record of the fastest gas turbine installation from arrival of turbines on site – 94 days and 73 days for the two turbines.
In his address, Prime Minister Nawaz referred to the situation of political uncertainty and instability and said it also hit the country’s stock market over the past few days and affected the value of rupee against US dollar. However, he said that as his government had a strong determination to move ahead and serve the people, and would not be deterred by the hue and cry being made by political opponents.
He said even on July 10, the day when the JIT would present its report, he would perform the ground-breaking of a mega Dasu Hydropower project, having a capacity of generating 4,500 megawatts of electricity. Similarly, he said the Diamer Bhasha Dam was also in the preparation phase, and after completion, it would not only generate 4,500 megawatts of electricity but would serve as a huge water reservoir to irrigate the agricultural lands.
Speaking about the Haveli plant, he said the project was completed in historic 21 months time and a new trend had been created in the country where mega projects were being completed in shortest possible time. With dozens of power projects launched by the government, it had succeeded in adding 7,000 megawatts of electricity to the national grid so far, he said.
He said it was not a normal thing that lights were coming back to the country and eliminating the darkness created due to the criminal negligence of past regimes including a dictator. He said it was their promise and commitment to remove darkness from the country. “We have fulfilled this commitment to a large extent and we will completely eliminate loadshedding from the country,” he said.
“Our political opponents are not happy over it as Pakistan is growing and achieving the heights of development, darkness is ending, roads and motorways are being constructed.” Nawaz referred to various already completed and on-going four and six lanes highways and motorways projects including Peshawar-Karachi, Gawadar-Khunjrab, Faisalabad-Multan, Multan-Sukkur, Sukkur-Hyderabad, Hyderabad-Karachi etc and said these were revolutionary projects.
Similarly, he said tourism sector was getting boost particularly in the hilly areas of Gilgit Baltistan, Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Kashmir, which were flocked by tourists, creating huge opportunities of income for the people. He said that the purchasing power of masses over the last four years had increased. He mentioned the saving of huge Rs168 billion in the installation of three power projects and said this amount would be spent on other development projects.
Besides Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and provincial ministers were also present on the occasion.
