MANSHERA: According to Federal Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir Khan, the federal government is promoting environmentally friendly and renewable energy sources for the people’s prosperity and long-term economic growth.
He claimed that efforts were being made to promote all renewable energy sources, including wind, hydropower, coal, solar, and bioenergy, in order to make Pakistan completely self-sufficient in electricity for rapid agricultural and economic growth and the unavoidable sustainable development necessary for the prosperity of the populace. Speaking at a celebration following the opening of a 220/765KV grid station at Swan Maira in this city, which cost an estimated Rs24 billion to build in a year, the minister said the massive project would significantly improve power voltage and offer uninterrupted power supply to consumers in the agricultural, industrial, and domestic sectors.
He said 1,088 kanal land has been acquired for the grid station, adding it was part of the mega energy infrastructure development project worth Rs132 billion under which transmission lines between Dasu Kohistan-Manshera and Islamabad-Manshera would be laid through NTDC.
Khurram Dastgir said the World Bank would financially assist in the execution of these mega projects in the Hazara division. He said these projects would generate many job opportunities for local people and professionals including engineers and technicians of Manshera.
The federal minister said that 132 KV grid stations at Bafa, Bakaryal, Ghari Habibullah and the remaining selected areas of Manshera district would also be constructed to improve voltage and curb load shedding.
He directed Managing Director NTDC to prepare feasibility studies of these grid stations at the earliest so that practical work could be started on it. He said the PMLN had the credit to establish Hazara Power Electricity Supply Company to address energy issues locally and expedite the pace of development here.
Khurram Dastgir said the government strongly believed in uniformed development of the country and had started scores of energy projects in different cities including Faisalabad and Thar to facilitate people.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, he said work on halted energy projects had been restarted, adding the prime minister would shortly visit Thar for the inauguration of 2,000MW coal electricity generated projects there.
“Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had connected people of all provinces of Pakistan through motorways and Hazara motorway was an example of it,” he said.
He said the people of Pakistan would have to decide that whether they would vote for those who constructed a network of motorways, made Pakistan an atomic power and completed record development projects in the shape of great leaders Nawaz Sharif and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif or those who deceived masses through hollow slogans of change and continued confrontation lies based politics in the shape of Imran Khan.
He said the PMLN was constructing energy projects to abolish load shedding while our opponent group was involved in carrying out attacks on police with petrol bombs, ransacking public properties in Lahore and halting development works.
The federal minister said people of KP would reject PTI in upcoming elections after Imran Khan, known for lies-based politics, himself negated his own foreign conspiracy narrative drama.
Khurram Dastgir said the people of Khyber Pakthunkhwa were fed up with the politics of hollow slogans in the last ten years of rule of PTI and would vote PMLN for speedy progress and development of the provinces besides resolution of their issues.
He said that the PML N government was the only party that could take the country out of existing challenges and put it on the road to progress and development besides addressing the problems of KP people.
