Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI), acting president, Syed Zia Alamdar Hussain has welcomed the ground breaking ceremony of CASA-1000 that will provide 1000 MW electricity to Pakistan's energy starved economy. In a statement issued here on Saturday, he said, CASA is one of the many major multinational infrastructure projects which would play a vital role in transferring cheap hydel electricity from Central Asia to South Asian countries and will further spur economic activities in the region.
He expressed satisfaction that western donors are also funding this one billion dollar project. "Participation of the heads of these countries at the CASA-1000 ground breaking ceremony reflects on their resolve to complete this project for the benefit of their respective countries which include Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan to supplement economic activities."
Continuing, Syed Zia Alamdar Hussain said that Nawaz-led government in Pakistan was making serious efforts to overcome the energy crisis and many energy related projects are under completion. Although, there is visible gap between demand and supply of electricity in Pakistan but the management of FESCO has reduced load-shedding to zero for the major and composite industrial units of Faisalabad region, and added that now efforts are being made to further curtail the duration of load-shedding in small and medium industrial units.
He said that consumption of electricity will be increased with the onset of summer. Similarly, load shedding schedule for the industrial sector will also be disturbed in order to ensure uninterrupted power supply to households during Ramadan. Syed Zia Alamdar Hussain also said, the Nawaz-led government must take immediate steps to increase power generation and improve management to ensure power to the industrial sector to overcome the power crisis. "Load shedding for the industrial sector will not only affect the productivity but also disturb the national exports", he said.