The recent countrywide electricity breakdown that adversely affected industrial and domestic consumers in all provinces including KP, has necessitated a complete overhauling of the power distribution and transmission system and expediting work on under-construction dam projects to address the country’s economic and water woes.
As the summer is approaching fast with the possibility of exerting extra load on the national transmission system including the power distribution companies and PESCO, there is a need to strengthen the power distribution and transmission system in all provinces including KP besides accelerating work on Mohmand, Diamir Bhasha and Kurram Tangi and other water reservoirs to avoid the Tuesday like power breakdown incident in future.
“The recent electricity fault should be an eye-opener for all of us. It reflects that our electricity transmission and generation system was overloaded and required huge investment after the former PTI government failed to upgrade the system,” said Wajid Ali Khan, former Minister and ANP leader while talking to APP on Thursday. He said the power transmission lines and infrastructure including electricity poles affected by the floods in flood-hit areas, especially in northern districts of KP including Swat and Kohistan required special attention from the government.
Wajid claimed that the former PTI government has neither addressed the problem of illegal power connections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa nor completed the long-awaited Mohmand dam project, resulting in prolonged power outages in the province today. He claimed that over 100 mini micro hydel power stations constructed by the former PTI government with the help of NGOs in northern KP were either destroyed or damaged by last year’s summer floods due to its ill planning and wrong selection of sites, thus wasting huge financial resources. As a result, he said, the energy import bill had swelled to $27 billion, causing negative effects on the national economy and industrial production.—APP
