Work on Dasu hydropower, Islamabad sub station commenced

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Power Division on Wednesday informed that work on all three lots including Dasu Hydropower Project, Mansehra Sub Station and Islamabad Sub Station has already been started.

The committee which met with Senator Saifullah Abro in the Chair was told that the total length of the transmission line was 254.6 kilometres which included 686 towers, the state news agency reported.

The chairman expressed dissatisfaction over the briefing on the 765 kV double circuit transmission line and sought details of tendering and bidding process of the project.

The Chairman directed the power division officials to present all details related to the project in the next meeting of the committee.

The committee also discussed appointment of board of directors (BODs) members of various power distribution companies (DISCOs). The committee also expressed displeasure for not taking action against the BODs members of DISCOs.

Saifullah Abro said that non–professional persons were appointed in the BODs instead of engineers. Appointment in BODs should be made purely on merit, he added.

Briefing the Senate Panel, The Quetta Electric Supply Company Chief told that the company circular debt stood at Rs 550 billion with monthly increase of Rs 5 billion. The CEO said that the provincial government was not providing assistance in recovery of electricity bills.

The committee also discussed country wide power outage. The additional secretary power division told the committee that the Prime Minister had set up committee to probe the power outage which presented its report to the Cabinet.

The meeting was attended by Senators Fida Muhammad, Haji Hidayatullah Khan, Sana Jamali, Prince Umer and senior officials of Power Division, NTDC and concerned departments.