Telemetry system to be functional in six months: minister

Islamabad: Caretaker Minister for Water and Power, Tariq Hameed has said telemetry system will start functioning within six months after training of Indus River System Authority's (Irsa) personnel.

The minister said this while talking to APP here on Wednesday, adding that after capacity building of concerned staff of Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) and Irsa the system would be ready to run. He said the staff was being provided training on the recommendations of report presented by World Bank consultant on telemetry system for its smooth functioning.

Tariq Hameed said that to overcome load-shedding problem besides starting effective management, Wapda would get one rental plant while two rental plants already inaugurated having total capacity of 286MW to reduce power shortage in the country.

He said that 150MW power would be produced by 2008 through windmills, while 600 houses had been provided solar energy in all four provinces.

He said that 2,700MW additional power capacity would be added in coming three years after completion of Private Power Infrastructure Board's (PPIB) projects. He said Wapda had planned to start new power plant at Guddu to improve additional power up to 800MW during 2008-09.

He said Mangla raising project would be completed in June next and its filling would be in next summer due to which capacity generation would increase estimated at 180MW. He said development work had been started on Jinnah hydel project at Jinnah Barrage by Wapda to generate 94MW electricity to be completed in 2010.

He said PPIB had been directed to remove bottlenecks in small hydel projects having capacity of 100MW to 200MW. Tariq Hameed said the ministry had planned to purchase 100,000 energy saver bulbs to be distributed in hospitals, educational institutions and other government offices to save energy.

He said those saver bulbs would also be placed at utility stores, as it saved energy 80 percent than other bulbs, adding the decision of closing shops at 8:00pm had saved 300MW electricity. He said the government was striving to overcome the power demand and supply gap, adding the situation would improve from 2009 onwards after starting of eight power plants under PPIB.

He said all mega power projects would be completed by 2016 including Basha-Diamer, Kalabagh, Akora, Munda and Kurram-Tungi to generate 9,000MW more electricity in the country. He said electricity demand would also be met through small and medium power generation projects under public-private partnership.

Tariq Hameed said a comprehensive strategy was being chalked out for utilisation of coal in power generation to balance the supply and demand of the electricity. He said study on Kalabagh Dam had been completed, while engineering work on Basha-Diamer Dam to be completed by the end of 2008.

He said the contract award of the project is likely in 2009, while deadline of 2016 had been fixed for its completion. The minister said private sector would complete Munda Dam while pending work of Khuram-Tungi would be started within three months.