PIAF supports NEPRA to add hydropower in renewable energy scope.

ISLAMABAD -- The Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front chairman Mian Nauman Kabir has endorsed the recommendations of National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), directing the government to include hydropower projects in the scope of renewable energy, as the country cannot afford to rely on costly and anti-environment fossil fuels.

In a joint statement with the senior vice chairman Nasir Hameed and vice chairman Javed Iqbal, PIAF chairman emphasized the importance of dam development, stating that as much as 20 million acres of barren land can be brought under plough if the water is made available by developing water storages in the country. He said that with construction of dams, the country can strengthen its agriculture to attain food security and cope with the fast growing needs of water in domestic and industrial sectors besides injecting sizeable low-cost hydroelectricity into the national grid to stabilize the national economy

According to reports, the NEPRA has written letters to Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB), National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) and Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB), asking them to implement the directives of the regulator. According to Nepra, it has been observed that...