Says welfare of nation top priority; Inaugurates residential project for industrial workers
Tariq Saeed Peshawar
Lamenting that the previous governments instead of building dams for affordable electricity generations, signed exorbitant agreements with the sole aim to make money, Prime Minister Imran Khan Wednesday said his government was revisiting the agreements with the Independent Power Producers.
“We are revisiting the agreements with the independent power producers and have also signed some new ones which will benefit us with cost-cutting,” Imran Khan said while talking to media persons during his visit to the Mohmand Dam construction site Wednesday.
He said the welfare of the nation was the top priority of his team and not winning the forthcoming elections.
He said with the expensive agreements made by the previous governments, are left with no option but to pay them off whether or not we buy electricity from them due to which our capacity payments will jump to Rs1,455 billion by the year 2023.
Imran said that the law was equal for all though the mafias were trying to get NRO from him yet they would not succeed in their efforts. “I will never give NRO to them as we are determined to bring them under the accountability net”. PM vowed.
Prime Minister, however, said at present the full cost of power was not borne by people but they were paying less than the real amount of electricity they are consuming.
Imran made it clear his government was concerned about the future of the nation and not the win in the next elections.
He declared that his government’s aim is to construct as many as 10 dams across Pakistan by the year 2028 adding with the construction of dams, the country can produce up to 50,000 megawatts of power and it will also help the country with water allocation and agricultural land irrigation.
Expressing the confidence that the construction of Mohmand dam will be completed on time, the Premier said the Dam will solve the water and electricity woes of the people in the region The construction of the dam, it may be recalled, began in May 2019 and has been ongoing despite the coronavirus pandemic. The dam is being built on Swat River to prevent flooding.
This multipurpose dam costing Rs309.6 billion will have a height of 213m. It will have a water storage capacity of 1.293 million acre-feet and help generate 800 megawatts of electricity.
Earlier the Prime Minister inaugurated a residential project for industrial workers in Peshawar’s Shahi Bala area. The prime minister was accompanied by Chief Minister KP Mahmood Khan.
The project of the KP government will provide flats to 2056 families of industrial workers registered with the provincial government after a balloting process.
