Senate sub-committee flays govt on power crisis.

Byline: Fawad Yousafzai

ISLAMABAD -- Chairman Senate Sub-Committee on Power Wednesday observed that power losses, unprecedented loadshedding and malfunctioning of the system have made the lives of the people of Balochistan miserable.

He said that different areas of the province is facing 12 to 14 hours load shedding.

Senate sub-committee on Power that met with senator Agha Shahzaib Durrani in the chair deplored the performance of the NTDC. He said power losses, unprecedented load shedding and malfunction of the system have made the lives of the people of Balochistan miserable.

'There is 12-14 hours load shedding in different areas of Baluchistan province adding to the hardships of the people and no tangible steps have been taken to enhance capacity of the existing system,' Senator Agha Shahzaib Durrani said.

The committee was informed that the government hopes to ensure increased supply of electricity to the consumers in the recent summer season as 90 per cent constraints in transmitting electricity have been addressed after removing previous managing director National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC). Joint secretary Power Division Zargham Khan said that 10700 MW of electricity was added in the national grid during 2013 to 2018 but transmission lines were not available to evacuate additional electricity. He said that 22000 MW of electricity was available but transmission system was able to transfer only 19800 MW of electricity. He said that parallel action was required to lay transmission line but no proper planning was done in this regard. He said that Power Division was fully aware of delay in transmission line projects and had communicated to then MD NTDC to complete the projects in time.

Different areas of Balochistan facing 12 to 14 hours loadshedding

While briefing the committee regarding the removal of the MD NTDC, officials of Power Division informed that previous managing director (MD) failed to take measures to make proper planning for stability of transmission system to avoid blackouts and execute transmission line projects according to timelines. The official said that delay in transmission line projects was leading to threat of multimillion dollars penalty on account of capacity payments to be charged by power...