PHC seeks govt explanation for delay in Dir power project.

PESHAWAR -- The Peshawar High Court has directed the provincial energy and power secretary and other relevant officials to file response within 15 days to a petition challenging a delay in the completion of a Lower Dir power project.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Ijaz Anwar issued the directions after holding initial hearing into the petition of Lower Dir resident Rahim Shah Akhunkhail, who sought orders for the respondents to ensure early completion of work on the Koto hydropower project.

It directed four respondents, including the provincial energy and power secretary, chief executive of the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation, Koto project director, and Sichuan-Sarwar-Silian-Chungqing Luyang, a joint venture company contracted to execute the project.

Schedule of the next hearing will be announced later.

The petitioner's counsel, Malik Mohammad Ajmal Khan, said that the site for the Koto hydropower project was identified by the government in 1992 with the help of the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ).

Resident calls for early completion of work

He said that the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved the project in Aug 2014, while work on it was inaugurated on July 5, 2015.

The lawyer said that the River Panjkora project meant to generate 40.8 megawatts of energy was to be completed within four years, by Feb 2019 to be exact, but it had entered a slow lane.

He said that a national newspaper reported on May 24, 2021, that 90 per cent of the project work had been completed and the rest would be completed by Dec 2021, but another news report put the completion time at Dec 2022.

Mr Khan said that work was under way even after the deadline extension.

He contended that the main objective of the project was...