SANA

ISLAMABAD (SANA): The government is fully committed to achieve its targets for inducting the required power capacity into the national grid, and get rid of the menace of load shedding by the end of this year.

This was stated by Minister for Water & Power Raja Pervez Ashraf while chairing the 81st meeting of the Board of Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) held here today. He said that 3,000 MW will be added into the system by the December 2009, which includes IPPs and rental projects being processed by PPIB in the private sector as well as the projects being processed in the public sector by PEPCO.

The progress of all the power projects was reviewed in the meeting. Managing Director PPIB, Mr. Fayyaz Elahi gave a briefing on the status of IPPs under construction, based on actual site visit of the PPIB/ WPPO teams, on which the board expressed satisfaction.

The Minister for Water and Power said PPIB team should remain on its toes and was confident that load shedding would be eliminated by December 2009.

He further added that keeping in view the future electricity demand growth into the next five years, planning should be done before time so that we are fully geared to avoid future electricity deficits in the country.

The meeting was attended by the Secretary Water and Power Mr. Shahid Rafi, Secretary Planning Commission Dr. Ashraf Hayat, Special Secretary Petroleum and Natural Resources Mr. G. A. Sabri, and Managing Director PPIB Mr. Fayyaz Elahi, besides other senior government officials, and private members of the Board.