PESHAWAR, Oct 24: Former state minister Mohammad Younis Elahi on Wednesday urged the quarters concerned to shift the Wapda House from Lahore to Peshawar for expeditious development of hydel power potential of the NWFP.

In a statement here, he said the Indus basin, including all rivers flowing in NWFP, had 30,000 mega Watt electricity and Tarbela, Warsak and a score of other small hydel power stations were located in the province, but the Wapda headquarters were at Lahore.

He regretted that the successive governments had failed to fully tap the hydel power potential of the province.

He contended that from the security point of view and for other reasons, including economic, it was not feasible to keep the Wapda House at Lahore.

He said Lahore was already developed while parts of the NWFP had been ignored and not even 10 per cent of its resources had been utilized.

He said Peshawar was the most suitable location for Wapda headquarters that could house all the requirements of Wapda besides expediting speedy development of hydel power.

He said the shifting of the Wapda headquarters would also result in saving foreign exchange.

He appealed to President Gen Pervez Musharraf that he should order immediate shifting of Wapda House to Peshawar.