KP govt fails to generate a single MW power in three years*

[ahlam1399]

KP govt fails to generate a single MW power in three years*

Provincial minister defends govt’s performance

ISLAMABAD: The much hyped Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo) has miserably failed to add a single megawatt to the system since the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) took over the charge of KP.

Instead, 4MW electricity has been wiped out from the system. So the output of Pedo has a negative performance in terms of generating electricity since its creation. Top officials of the KP government told The News that the province added 105MW through some projects initiated since 2007 during the ANP government. They said that Malakat-III came on stream with 81MW, Pehure canal hydropower project 18MW, Reshun 4MW and Shishi 2MW. However, the Reshun project with 4MW got destroyed in the 2015 flood and since then it can**t be rehabilitated which means that during the last three years of the PTI government in the province it has added **thing in the system, rather it lost 4MW electricity.

“Since the 2015 flood, as many as 100,000 people in Chitral are forced to live in darkness and spend their lives without electricity in the vicinity of Reshun hydropower project.” The responsible at Pedo, who served in Abbott Company and Engro company, was criticised by Shakeel Durrani who had resigned as the chairman of Pedo recently. The Pedo’s top management has awarded the contract of Lawi hydropower project to a Chinese company without the **d of board of directors, reveals one of the former members of board of Pedo.

K**wing the fact, the board member said, the said Chinese company has ** experience of making the project of even 60MW. However, in the official website of the said company, it is mentioned that it has experience of building hydropower project of just 13MW. “The board of directors wanted to award the contract to the company which possesses at least the experience of building the project of 60MW and to assess as to whether the said Chinese company has the required experience or **t. The BoD had asked the responsible at Pedo to send a team of officials to China to k**w the facts, but they did **t send and ultimately Pedo awarded the letter of award (LoA) to the Chinese company.

Even the two projects, Machai and Ra**lia, completed in July 2015 at inflated costs, are **t generating power because the transmission lines have **t been completed because of which the province is braving Rs40 million loss every month.

A**ther BoD member said the board of directors had halted the release of Rs1.5 billion to the contractor of Lawi hydropower project, but the top gun of Pedo wanted to release the said amount to the contractor without any audit. The top management wanted, he said, to release the said amount prior to June 30 to avoid the lapse of funds.

Apart from that, the Board of Directors did **t accord approval to the additional amount of Rs1.3 billion incurred on the completion of Ra**lia hydropower project. And on top of that the BoD had also initiated the inquiry into the two hydropower projects that got completed but ** transmission line was laid down owing to which electricity is **t being injected to the national grid which is why the province is braving a loss of Rs40 million every month.

Shakeel Durrani, former Wapda chairman, also worked as secretary in the federal ministries, who had factually tendered resignation two months back as chairman board of directors of Pedo against massive corruption along with faulty decisions in various projects but Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak did **t accept the resignation. Instead, Khattak kept on persuading Durrani to take back his resignation. Meanwhile, Durrani convened the BoD meeting on June 22 in which he wanted to initiate inquiries into the wrongdoings in the said two projects.

Interestingly, the chief minister who was earlier **t accepting the resignation of Shakil Durrani, approved the resignation just before the BoD meeting scheduled to meet on June 22. KP Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani, when contacted, told The News that ** one from the federal chapter of the party ever intervened in the affairs of the provincial government. The minister said he held two portfolios and he never ever experienced any interventions.

The minister said that Shakeel Durrani was **t cooperating with Pedo management that wanted to run the organisation on corporate model, but Durrani was slowing down the things and wanted to run it on the pattern of Wapda. The minister posed the question saying what performance Durrani gave in improving the output of Wapda and reducing corruption in it. When asked as to why the chief minister of KP accepted the resignation of Durrani a day before meeting of the BoD convened to initiate the probe into wrongdoings in various projects, Ghani said when someone resigns, then it is up to the competent authority to accept it at any appropriate time.

Coming to the issue of zero addition of electricity in the system by the KP government, the minister said it is **t the fact, as the PTI government has focused on developing micro hydel projects and a scheme to this effect had been carved out to build 356 micro hydel projects in the province, out of which the government has managed to erect some projects. However, the minister was unable to tell the exact electricity generation from completed micro hydel projects. The minister said Durrani was against the micro hydel projects.

When told about an international study that unfolds that success rate of micro hydel projects is **t up to the mark in Pakistan as the communities are unable to keep the projects running, the minister said the KP government had built the projects and let’s see how communities run them. However, the international study says, in Skardu and Chtiral there are some success stories wherein Agha Khan Foundation is the organisation which is running these projects.

When asked about Rushmi hydropower project which was badly hit by the 2015, Ghani admitted the failure of government in this regard and said efforts are underway to rehabilitate this project. While deliberating at the two projects that include Machai and Ra**lia, completed in July 2015, and are **t generating power, Ghani admitted that so far transmission lines are **t laid down and the province is indeed facing the losses. He said it is **t the fault of the KP government as laying down the transmission lines is the job of the federal government which is **t paying required heed to the issue.

“We have agitated this particular issue with federal government off and on, but there is ** progress at all. “Peshawar Electricity Supply Company (Pesco) does **t fall under the provincial government. Instead, it operates under federal government, the minister argued.







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