Govt to make Pakistan loadshedding free country: Abid Sher

Lahore : State Minister for Power Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali on Wednesday said the PML-N government would make Pakistan load-shedding free before the end of its constitutional tenure.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of 220-KV Grid Station
costing Rs 1,966 million in Gujrat, he said that people had
to face load-shedding of 18 hours in a day in 2013 but the
situation had now completely changed.

He said the PML-N government had added 7,500 megawatt
electricity in the system, however 660 megawatt electricity
from Port Qasim would also be included till November 15.
Appreciating the measures taken by the National Transmission
and Dispatch Company (NTDC) for ongoing projects of transmission lines and grid stations, Abid Sher Ali announced a bonus equal to one month salary for NTDC employees.

He said that Nandipur power project would also supply
525 megawatt electricity under Combine Cycle to national grid
station, adding that Neelam-Jhehlum project was launched in
Pervez Musharraf’s era which had not generated a single
megawatt till former president Asif Ali Zardari’s regime.

Abid Sher Ali said that load-shedding had been ended in
industries, adding that 12,000 megawatt electricity would be
added to the national grid till March next year.

The transmission systems was also further updated to
ensure uninterrupted supply of newly generated electricity
in the country, he said and added that 90 percent work of
Neelam-Jhehlum transmission line had been completed. The
project would add 250 megawatt electricity till March 2018,
however more 965 megawatt electricity would be added to
the national grid through the project till June 2018,
he maintained.

The work on Diamir-Bhasha Dam has been initiated, he said
and added that Central Asia South Asia (CASA)-1000 agreement
has been signed and the transmission work would soon be started.

The PML-N government completed the projects transparently
to facilitate the people, he said and added that no one could
prove corruption of a single rupee in these electricity projects.

The minister said the PML-N was working hard to serve the
people of the country, whereas former prime minister Nawaz Sharif himself had monitored the development projects to ensure
transparency and progress, he maintained.

Abid Sher Ali said that other political parties were
afraid of the PML-N as it was popular among the masses due
to its development-oriented policies. The PML-N government
has brought an investment of Rs 152 billion in the country,
he added.

He said the PML-N would win the general elections 2018
as it worked to serve the people by setting up a number of
development projects to put the country on way to progress
and prosperity.
He said that there was huge corruption in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
(KPK) projects and six ministers of KPK government were sacked
on corruption charges.