LAHORE: With the general elections just around the corner, the Ministry of Power, in a bid to temporarily relieve the people of the menace of load shedding during summers, has decided to add another 18,000MW to the national grid, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Moreover, 8,500 feeders across the country have been directed to take emergency measures and provide the people with an uninterrupted supply of electricity during Sehr and Iftar in the holy month of Ramzan.
According to the details, the chief executive officers (CEOs) of Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO), Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO), Multan Electric Power Company (MEPCO), Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) as well as all that of all other power supply companies have been directed to reduce load shedding during Ramzan while also controlling line losses and power theft.
Sources told Pakistan Today that two to eight hours of load shedding was being observed in 3,303 out of the total 8,600 feeders across the country, while eight to ten hours of the power outage was being carried out in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and FATA. They also told that only two hours of load shedding was being observed in Lahore and other major cities of Punjab.
“The percentage of electric theft in areas with ten hours of load shedding has reached eighty per cent, while in the areas that have been declared ‘load shedding-free’ by the government, the rate of theft is even below ten per cent,” they added.
They also said that it was owing to these irregularities and fake promises of eradicating power shortage that heavy criticism, from both the people and the opposition, was now being faced by the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) government. And so, the authorities, in a bid to tackle the increasing demand of electricity during the holy month, had decided to resume using the power stations that were shut down earlier for producing costly electricity by burning expensive fuels.
Sources saying that all these steps were taken to please the people prior to the general polls, concluded that after the said steps had been taken, the production of electricity in the country would reach 25,000MW.
