LAHORE: A delegation of the PAF Air War College Karachi, headed by Air Commodore Hussain Ahmed Siddiqui, on Friday visited the WAPDA House. The delegation was briefed about water and power sectors of the country. WAPDA Member (Power) Badrul Munir Murtiza, acting Member (Water) Nasir Hanif and senior officers of WAPDA were also present on the occasion.
Briefing the delegation, WAPDA Adviser on Diamer-Basha Dam Project Dr Izharul Haq said that the WAPDA was working on a number of projects for harnessing the water resources to meet the increasing requirement of water and electricity in the country. He told the delegation that the WAPDA was constructing six hydropower projects with total generation capacity of 4,792 MW. Out of them, three projects of 2,485MW namely 969MW Neelum Jhelum, 1,410MW Tarbela 4th Extension and106MW Golen Gol will be completed by 2018, he said.
The delegation was also informed about water sector projects, which are under construction, including Kachhi Canal (Phase-I), Nai Gaj Dam and Kurram Tangi Dam. The delegation was told that seven other projects in water and hydropower sectors wee ready for construction, including the Diamer-Basha Dam with gross water storage capacity of 8.1 MAF and power generation capacity of 4500MW, Bunji Hydropower Project with electricity generation capacity of 7,100 MW and Mohmand Dam with gross water storage capacity of 1.2 MAF and power generation capacity of 800MW to name a few.
In another briefing, PEPCO General Manager (Revenue and Commercial Operation) Muhammad Saleem informed the delegation about power sector reforms, electricity load shedding, energy mix, distribution and transmission losses, billing and percentage of recovery and receivables. The delegation was also apprised of the government’s efforts to overcome electricity shortage in the country. They were also informed about new initiatives for generation expansion plan, system improvement, meter reading through mobile phones, automatic metering infrastructure and net metering.
Subsequent to the briefings, queries about water and power sectors raised by the participants were responded to in a question-answer session. Later, the WAPDA member (Power) and the PAF Air War College delegation head exchanged souvenirs.
