Senate Committee on Power suggests to transfer HQ of NTDC to Capital

F.P Report

ISLAMABAD: On Tuesday, the Senate Standing Committee on Power give their suggestion to transfer of the headquarters of National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) to Islamabad from Lahore, The Senate Committee gave this suggestion giving the reason that this will assist in addressing  multiple issues without any hurdle.

Furthermore, the Committee also held a meeting with Senator Fida Muhammad in the Chair. The committee meeting was attended by Senators Dr Ghous Muhammad Khan, Mirza Muhammad Afridi, Molvi Faiz Muhammad, Bahramand Tangi, Hidayatullah and other senior officials of the concerned departments.

In this meeting the dignitaries had discussion on the matters of the number of electricity meters installed by PESCO during the last 6 months, provision of electricity to Makran Division through establishment of power projects, non-installation of meters, promotion of “kunda culture”.

Along with this the issues of wrong billing of PESCO in Charasadda, Scrutiny of the PSDP proposed by the Ministry for the next fiscal year 2021-22 and TESCO were also discussed comprehensively.

Additionally, Chief Engineer Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) briefed the committee regarding the new connections; he informed that around 81,000 new connections were provided to the consumers in last six months.

PESCO Chief informed the meeting saying that, some 16,000 connections were installed in Peshawar, 13000 in Khyber, 9700 in Mardan, 6700 in Harazar-I, 6000 in Harza-II, 21,000 in Swat, 4000 in Bannu and 3800 in Swabi.

He added that there were issues of possession in many areas.

The Secretary Power Division assured the committee that hurdles in installation of meter would be removed.

On the other hand, Chairman remarked that installation of meters was crucial to discourage power theft. He mentioned that, excessive and wrong bills would further aggravate the problem.

Regarding FATA areas, he mentioned that, effective mechanism could help address all such issues. There were host of issues in erstwhile FATA areas,.

Moreover, during the meeting the officials of Quetta Electric Supply Company (QUECO) also gave briefing to the committee stating that the entire grids were over loaded and strategy was being made to bring improvement.

Under a policy, eight hour electricity was being provided to the tube-wells, they mentioned.

Highlighting the electricity supply to Makran Division, the committee was apprised that there was main electricity connectivity issue from the national grid system. Committee mentioned that

Makran was being connected with the national grid system. A 300 MW coal power project was being set up in Gwardar.

In addition to this, Chairman required niceties of 50 MW solar power project for the Makran Division.

Furthermore the committee was informed regarding the PSDP Projects for 2021-22. The committee was told that an amount of Rs 155.7 billion was specified for various power projects.

While talking about the budget of the project, the committee was informed that around RS 97 Billion was provided by foreign funding. Whereas, Rs 36 billion from local banks while Rs 33 billion would be provided by the government.

Out of total 94 projects, 80 were ongoing while 14 were new projects and

the committee was informed that NTDC has 61 projects worth Rs 93 billion for which funds were already available. Nevertheless, there were some issues of land.

Regarding the completion of Makran project, committee was informed that the Makran project stating that would be completed by 2023.

Additionally, committee also expressed discontentment over absence of CEO TESCO in the meeting and sought explanation from him.