The federal government would provide 21-mmcfd gas to Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) for generating 105 MW of additional power. Addressing a press conference here at the Governor House on Monday, Sindh governor Dr Ishratul Ibad said that load-shedding coupled with technical faults in the transmission system have made the life of citizens miserable.
In view of such situation the governor met President Musharraf. The President convened a meeting involving all the stakeholders, which lasted for about five hours. During the meeting the President took immediate steps and passed orders on the spot. To give relief to Karachiites, the President agreed for an out-of-the way favour and sanctioned 21 mmcfd additional gas to KESC for generation of 105 MW power.
The governor said that work on faulty generator turbine ie Unit-IV had been completed and the KESC would be producing more power, and thus the masses would get some relief.
He informed that the peak electricity demand of Karachi was around 2400 MW while the shortage hovered around 100MW. He said that increased demand from the industrial, agricultural sector and households widened the demand-supply gap, as the supply did not increase in the matching ratio due to lack of investment in the sector.
Dr Ibad said that they had asked the KESC to avoid load shedding in the residential areas and also asked to defer infrastructure improvement work other than those of immediate nature. He also said that the government was giving subsidy on electricity and added that they have asked the KESC to provide break-up in the bills showing the subsidy given to consumer.