LAHORE, June 10: The fast-track water development plans would be able to generate sufficient power to meet country’s requirements for the next five years.

This was claimed by Wapda chairman Zulfiqar Ali Khan here on Tuesday. The present management took over Wapda with the objectives of converting the authority into a vibrant organization contributing in national development, bringing down power tariff and improving customer care.

It has made steady progress on all fronts. A net increase of 132 per cent in revenue has been registered and the authority expected Rs215 billion income this year against Rs93 billion in 1998. Line losses have been brought down from 42 per cent to 25 per cent. Another Rs18 would be spent on system augmentation during the next four years to bring losses further down by five per cent. Pakistan, he claimed, only stood above Sri Lanka (18 per cent) as far as line losses were concerned. India and Myanamar each having 28 per cent and Bangladesh 30 per cent.

Agreements with independent power producers (IPPs) were being observed at a cost of Rs116 billion this year and termed it a major factor in power tariff hike. Wapda has advanced different proposals to the government for bringing down tariff and was awaiting response, he said.