KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday asked three power companies of the province to electrify 1,179 villages for which Rs1.89bn have already been paid.
“The provincial government has given Rs5.86bn to three power companies, Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco), Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) and K-Electric for provision of electricity to 3,153 villages, of which 1,974 villages have been electrified against Rs3.66bn while 1,179 villages are yet to be electrified for which the Sindh government’s funds of Rs1.89 billion are lying with the power companies,” Murad Ali Shah said while presiding over a meeting on villages electrification.
The chief minister directed Sindh Minister for Energy Imtiaz Shaikh to talk to the concerned authorities of the Hesco, Sepco and the KE so that the remaining villages for which the government had already deposited demand notes could be electrified.
Besides Shaikh, the meeting was attended by Principal Secretary to CM Sajid Jamal Abro, Secretary Energy Musadiq Khan, Special Secretary Finance Asif Jahangir, Member Development P&D Fatah Tunio and other concerned officers.
Imtiaz Shaikh, while briefing the chief minister, said that the provincial government had paid Rs3124mn to Hesco to provide electricity to 1,600 villages and this amount was paid between 2012-13 to 2017-18.
He maintained that the Hesco had provided electricity to 870 villages for Rs1.84bn and 730 villages were yet to be electrified, whereas the payment of Rs1.35bn for the task was lying with Hesco.
At this, the chief minister directed the energy minister to talk to Hesco authorities so that the remaining villages could be electrified.
Shaikh also told that during last five years, 2012-2017, Rs2.34 bn were paid to Sepco for electrification of 1,508 villages against which they electrified 1,062 villages for Rs1.49 bn and still they had to electrify 446 villages. The funds of Rs512.42 million for this purpose allocated by the Sindh government were already available with the Sepco.
“Similarly, the K-Electric has been given Rs400mn to electrify 45 villages for Rs318.646mn and they have electrified 42 villages and work on three villages is in progress,” he said.
The CM said that the government had planned to electrify various villages of Karachi’s district Malir and district West for which he directed the energy department to prepare a plan for the schemes so that the funds required could be assigned.
