Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired 14th meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy at the PM House here on Friday. The meeting, which lasted for more than three hours, was given a detailed presentation on load management and recoveries by Secretary Water and Power. The meeting was informed that this year average load shedding in urban areas has been at six hours, and eight hours in rural areas, with the exception of those areas where recoveries are too less.

On industrial feeders average load-shedding this year has been four hours. The Prime Minister directed that tangible steps should be taken to control power theft while speeding up recoveries. The Prime Minister directed the concerned ministries to look into the possibility of increased supply of gas to Guddu Power Plants that would add more than 700 MW of electricity by October 2015.

The meeting was also informed about installation of subsidised tube-wells in Balochistan. Secretary Water and Power also briefed the meeting on access to solar power in rural Balochistan. Federal Minister for Petroleum briefed the meeting on the progress on LNG-based power plants. He informed that LNG would cost even less than furnace oil. The Prime Minister gave approval of converting power plants running on diesel and furnace oil to LNG.

Chairman WAPDA updated the meeting on matters related to Diamer-Bhasha hydel power generation project. The Prime Minister directed that acquisition of land for Diamer-Bhasha dam should be done by the 31st of July, 2015. He directed that work should be started on this power project as soon as possible. The Prime Minister asked Chairman WAPDA to present complete project proposal with timelines in the next meeting of Cabinet Committee on Energy.

The Prime Minister ordered formation of a parliamentary committee to hold an inquiry into suspected irregularities committed in purchase of land for Diamer-Bhasha project. The meeting was attended by Muhammad Ishaq Dar, Minister for Finance; Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Minister for Petroleum; Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Minister for Water & Power; Shahbaz Sharif, Chief Minister Punjab; Jam Kamal Khan, MOS for Petroleum and Raja Hassan Abbas, Secretary Cabinet; Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to PM on National Security; Tariq Fatemi, SAPM on Foreign Affairs; Dr Waqar Masood, Secretary Finance; Arshad Mirza, Secretary Petroleum; Younus Dagha, Secretary Water & Power; Chaudhry Muhammad Azam, Secretary Information; Tahir Hussain, Chief Secretary GB and Zafar Mahmood, Chairman WAPDA along with other senior officials.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2015