Pakistan seeks China’s help in fighting smog

ISLAMABAD: Call it understanding under China Pakistan Economic Corridor or the outcome of years-long friendship between the two countries, but Pakistan has once again eyeing the Chinese help – this time in fighting smog.

The government has decided to seek China’s help in fighting smog after different parts of the country suffered prolonged blackouts in the wake of disruption in power supply due to enveloping smog in Punjab cities.

Federal Minister for Power Division Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari has directed National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) experts to visit China and study the power generation model that counters the impact of smog.

The same system will be applied in smog-stricken areas in Pakistan, he said.

He gave the directives in a special meeting held on Tuesday to assess the situation arising from outages caused by changing weather conditions in some parts of the country.

Officials of all power distribution companies, generation companies, NTDC, National Power Control Centre and Power Division were present in the meeting.

The minister emphasised that immediate measures, like installation of anti-smog and anti-fog discs, should be taken at critical points to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply to the consumers as there was no power shortage in the country.

He told chief executive officers of the distribution companies and NTDC to sit together and come up with a technically sound solution to the problem. Planning and proposals should be finalised within three to four weeks, he said.

He also acknowledged the efforts made to control the damaging effects of feeder tripping which could have led to system breakdown and widespread blackouts as experienced a few years ago.