Senate on NTDC Performance Review

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

The meeting of the Committee was chaired by the Chairman Committee Senator Fida Muhammad on Tuesday. The Senate Standing Committee had in depth discussion on several issues pertaining to installation of electricity meters by PESCO during the last 6 months, provision of electricity to Makran Division, non-installation of meters in several areas, wrong billing, increase in electricity theft in the country. The committee noted that NTDC should relocate its headquarters to Islamabad, capital territory to help facilitate its operations and for better coordination with other departments and ministries at federal level.

NTDC is responsible for generation and transmission of electricity across the country, however, there are persistent issues regarding power generation and transmission/ distribution in most of the parts of the country. NTDC is still using the old transmission lines, which were laid across the country more than 5-6 decades before. Neither it had established the powers grids corresponding to the requirements nor replaced the distribution lines in the past. This situation resulted in the current grave condition in which Pakistan has capacity to generate sufficient electricity but have no satisfactory transmission system to deliver this power energy to its consumers right away.

Most of NTD’s grid stations are in the cities and high-tension lines passed through the populated areas and caused sever threats to lives of the resident of the locality. NTDC higher management usually come up with lame excuses of less resources, which could not be accepted because the prices of electricity have been raised time and again and people are bound to  pay electricity bills despite hours long load shedding every day.

The decision of Senate Standing Committee on Power to relocate the NTDC headquarters from Lahore to Islamabad is a good effort to make its top management accountable to the political leadership. Government must take similar decision for relocation of headquarters of  Pakistan International Airline (PIA), State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) to the capital Islamabad to enhance their efficiency and make them accountable.