The Federal Minister for Water and Power, Pervez Ashraf, on Saturday regretted giving deadline for end of power load shedding in the country. However, in the same breath he said that the government has hammered out a roadmap to overcome this crisis, and new power plants would bring relief to the public. He was talking to media after inaugurating a 201MW power plant at Raiwind Road.
The Minister also inaugurated Kasur Grid Station at Kasur city. He said, "I announced the end to load shedding spans in the country basing on the roadmap prepared by experts; but, load shedding could not be eliminated, thanks to delay in production from power plants." The government is still scrambling to trounce the power crisis in the country, as also it is looking forward to generating 5000 megawatt power, the minister added.
Hde said that work on solar energy projects was also afoot. According to him, adverse circumstances hampered timely installation of power plants in the country. However, the development on new power plants was being expedited, and Neelum, Jhelum and other hydel projects are underway, besides the coal projects, which would be cheaper than thermal generation, he added.
He said that rising oil prices world-wide had pushed the government to increase petrol and gas prices "but the government is fully aware of public miseries and a relief would be ensured in near future". Meanwhile, protestors blocked GT Road on Saturday against protracted and unannounced spans of outages of electricity and gas in the city.
A demonstration was staged in Lahore''s suburb of Shahdara against long spells of power and gas closures. The protesters, setting tyres on fire, blocked GT Road at both ends, disrupting the flow of traffic. The traffic stayed blocked for at least two hours from Shahdara-Babu Sabu Interchange. The demonstrators said they would continue protesting until the power and gas crises are brought under control.
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