Islamabad: The government on Friday announced that the power situation in the country would improve from Sunday, 1st of May, as steps have been taken to improve the availability of RNLG furnace oil to the power plants.
Federal Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir Khan, along with Minister of State Hashim Notezai, made the announcement at a press conference in Islamabad.
The announcement came in line with the order of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who had directed authorities to end the load-shedding across the country by the 1st of May.
Read: End load-shedding by May 1: PM Shehbaz directs authorities
During the meeting, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had directed the authorities concerned to evolve a sustained and smooth mechanism of fuel supply in the summer season to alter the power crises that have recently engulfed the country.
Addressing the press conference today, Minister of State Hashim Notezai said that the country was currently facing load shedding due to the shortage of fuel and the closure of certain power plants owing to maintenance and technical faults.
Alluding to the necessary steps taken by the government to curb power outages, the minister said, “steps have been taken at the power distribution companies to ensure that the situation does not deteriorate further during the days of Eid ul Fitr.”
Highlighting the cause of the severe power outages across the country, Khurram Dastagir Khan said that there had arisen an additional demand of two to three thousand megawatts of electricity during the last few days, which increased the demand and supply gap.
“The problem in Pakistan is not of electricity generation but of availability of fuel,” the federal minister said.
However, he also said that the availability of gas would start from Sunday, while that of coal would begin in the coming week, which would help overcome the shortage of electricity.
