PESHAWAR: An innovative private entrepreneur is going to establish two hydropower projects with the capacity of 20 Mega Watt electricity in the far-flung district Chitral of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Talking to APP, the investor, Mohammad Khan, who is also the founding president of the recently established Chitral Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) will initially start work on a 5 Mega Watt Project in Chitral Town.
The purpose of project is to arrest the shortage of electricity in the headquarters, said the entrepreneur adding he had already procured a machinery having capacity of generating 3.2 Mega Watt electricity, while the remaining will be purchased soon.
He had purchased 1.2 Mega Watt electricity generating machinery from Canada and for remaining 2 Mega Watt the required machinery will be procured from China.
Mohammad Khan said that he was inspired by the efforts of Agha Khan Support Programme (AGSP) and Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP), which were establishing small hydel stations for provision of electricity to the people of the area.
Like other villages of the district, his village was also lacking electricity therefore, he planned generating 10 Kilowatt electricity for his own residence and on demands of his neighbor he increased the capacity to 200 Kilowatt and to meet the demand of the whole village the capacity was increased to 1 MW.
For the purchase of machinery, he went to Urumqi (China) and carried the civil work by himself. The machinery was fitted by Chinese Engineers. Initially, he said the people were considering him mad, but, he took a risk, but now he no more considers it a risk.
Presently, he is supplying very cheap and load shedding free electricity to two union councils of Ayun and Broz.
He said that the sector has huge potential for the investment of private sector. However, he called for the removal of bureaucratic hurdles to encourage investment in the sector. The company established by Mohammad Khan for provision of electricity had installed formal meters and recruited its own linemen, who in case of fault repair the power supply system.
Like other power distribution companies, he had also arranged meter readers. Interestingly, he is even charging less than Sarhad Hydel Development Organization (SHYDO) established power supply schemes in the province.
According to him SHYDO is charging Rs.5 to 6 per unit from its consumers, but Ayun Power Station is charging only Rs.4 to 6 per unit. Per unit price for domestic consumers is Rs.4 while commercial consumers are charged Rs.6 per unit.
He said that the objective of his initiative is the uplift and service of the people as he is also running a successful construction firm. He said that Chitral has the potential of generating sufficient cheap electricity for the price hike stricken people of Pakistan.
He urged the government for extending cooperation, facilitation and removal of bureaucratic hurdles to encourage investment in the hydel sector of the province.
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