25-year plan devised to cater for power paucity, says PM

MIANWALI—Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz Saturday said that government has chalked out a 25-year Master Plan to bridge the gap between generation and demand of the energy in the country by launching new power projects.
Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony of 96 MW Jinnah Hydropower project here, he said that government would mobilize all the available resources for power production, adding tha the availability of enough energy resources was essential for rapid economic growth. He said, in view of rapid economic growth and substantial flow of foreign investment in Pakistan, 8 to 12 per cent power demand is increasing annually.
He said that Pakistan achieved 8.4 per cent econnmic growth rate last year and added that government would make all out efforts to sustain the same growth in future. He said that hydro,gas,nuclear,liquified natural gas and all alternative energy resources will be fully exploited for power generation. He said that Pakistan is already importing power from Iran by WAPDA which is being supplied in some parts of the Balochistan. Prime Minister said that Pakistan is negotiating with Iran for import of liquified natural gas (LNG) and an agreement in this regard would be finalised shortly.
He said, for the first time,government has offered a package of incentives to attract more foreign investors and private sector to supplement the efforts of the government towards achiving the goal of self-reliance in power geneation.
Punjab Governor,Lt.Gen (Retd) Khalid Maqbool, President, Pakistan Muslim League,Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain, Federal Minister for Informnation and Broadcasting,Muhammad Ali Durrani,Federal Minister for Women Development and Youth Affairs Ms Sumaira Malik,Minister of State for Finance Omar Ayub Khan, Punjab Ministers and a large number of Nazims and Naib Nazims of the district were present on the occasion. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said that two third of the total population is attached with agriculture sector and water is its basic need. In order to meet the needs of agriculture and industrial sectors, all the new dams including Kalabagh, Munda, Bhasha, Kuram Tangi and Akhori will be built by 2016 after developing consensus among all the provinces, he added.
He said initial work at Bhasha dam has been started adding that all the decisions will be taken in the larger national interest by taking all the provinces into confidence.
He said in past only 3000 villages were electrified annually while this year 15000 villages would be energized which, he added, reflects the sincerity of the present government towards the welfare of the poor segment of the society. He said first time in the history of the country, a record number of mega development projects are being executed across the country to ameliorate

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