Work on nine hydel power projects to start in Chitral

PESHAWAR: A meeting of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly's Standing Committee on Power and Energy was held on Tuesday at Governor House Chitral, with its chairman MPA Badshah Saleh in the chair. The meeting was attended by Provincial Population Minister, Saleem Khan, MPAs Anwar Khan, Aurangzeb Khan, Imtiaz Khan, Ghulam Muhammad, DCO Chitral Rehmat Wazir, Additional Secretary Energy and Power, Usman Yaqoob and elders of the area. Director Sarhad Hydel Development Organization (SHYDO), Zahid Sabri and Project Director Shabir Ahmad briefed the participants of the meeting about various ongoing power projects in Chitral. The meeting was told that SHYDO has plan of 1169MW that would be increased in future by addition of 800MW. The meeting was also told that work on nine power generation project would be started in future of which feasibility study of six projects would be conducted and construction of three projects would be started. It was told that 59MW Lavi Project would soon be inaugurated. The committee recommended to handover 1MW power project of Chitral to SHYDO for upgradation and refurbishment to resolve the issue of load-shedding in the area. Keeping in view the financial constraints in the province and need of creating employment opportunities for locals, the committee suggested for inviting private sector in power generation process. Speaking on the occasion, provincial minister Saleem Khan said that Chitral has the capacity to generate more than 10000MW electricity that would help to meet the energy demands of the country. APP