Power: a timely decision

THE government’s decision to launch about 3,000mw of thermal power projects through independent power producers is timely. According to the managing director of the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB), Karachi is currently facing a power shortage of 1080mw. This is likely to grow further soon. Also, Punjab’s industrial cities will need an immediate addition of at least 1,500mw of electricity to avert outages that will hit industrial production. Besides, if the GDP growth rate attained in the previous year at over 5 per cent is sustained then one can expect a sudden jump in the growth rate of power consumption, which would need a quick expansion of the generation capacity. Way back in the eighties, those managing the economy had failed to anticipate a power crisis. The result was that the country was confronted with a panic situation in the early 1990s, forcing Pakistan into costly agreements with private producers of power based on imported fuel.

That WAPDA and KESC will be kept out of the new phase of expansion of power generation capacity is also a welcome decision. These two organizations are the principal source of power crisis in Pakistan today. The two had the best of both worlds until about the late 1980s when the World Bank refused to provide them with more concessionary assistance because they had over the years degenerated into the most inefficient and corrupt organizations. Thus, it is good news that the PPIB is to be used as a dedicated institution to process and complete the new thermal power plants. However, one should have reservation about the news that all the new capacity would be thermal-based. There are three thermal sources which can be used for power generation — imported furnace oil and gas and coal available locally. There is still a big question mark on how soon coal would be made available for power production and of what quality. We have gas in abundance but at the moment most of it still lies buried. The prospects of importing gas from Central Asia, Iran or the Middle East in the foreseeable future do not seem bright. And what is available in the country at the moment is not enough to produce 3,000mw of power. This would mean that for the time being we would again have to fall back on costly imported furnace oil which in turn would make the domestic power tariff that much more oppressive for the common man and the industry. However, since the new projects are to be contracted out to private parties through competitive bidding, the possibility of getting a bad deal is less likely than it would have been if the government had continued with the IPP policy of the 1990s.

The continued neglect of the relatively more economical but long gestation route of power production i.e., hydel, even by the present government, appears rather intriguing. At least two hydel power projects, the Kohala power station (780mw) and Neelum/Jhelum power station (960mw), have been on the design table for almost over a decade and a half. A quick decision on these two projects would save the country a lot of resources as a well as heartaches. Indeed, if the government fails to take the second project in hand in due course of time, then India, under the terms of the Indus Waters Treaty, would have the right and justification to build its own water storage upstream.

KCR: another committee?

YET another committee has been set up — one in the series of many — to revive the Karachi Circular Railway. The all-important meeting that took place on Wednesday did no more than deal with old commitments and older disputes. No concrete step was taken to move this vital project forward by removing some major obstacles in its way. True that all those who attended the meeting — the governor, chief minister, chief secretary, city nazim and the railway minister — want the KCR revived, but for some mysterious reasons no one wants to manage it thereafter. That is why even when President Musharraf promised an early KCR revival two years ago, nothing came of it. In the final analysis, the KCR has come to symbolize the lack of will on the part of the authorities concerned to give Karachi an affordable and efficient urban transport alternative.

Pakistan Railways, since it shut down the KCR in December 1999, has adopted the position that it will only provide technical assistance to get the train up and running again but not manage it. The city government chalked out a plan to commercialize the land along the KCR tracks so that the money thus earned could fund the modernization and revival of the project. This made the PR see the KCR as a revenue-generating proposition and it laid a counter-claim to the land in question. At Wednesday’s meeting, the railway minister and the city nazim only reiterated their old claims. Meanwhile, several studies that have been conducted to make the KCR an efficient alternative to Karachi’s pressing urban transport needs never as much as came up for discussion. These studies, like the all but dead Karachi Mass Transit Programme, remain heaps of paper and nothing more. The KCR does not need any more committee scrutinizations than it has already been subjected to. It only requires concrete action on the ground to get it back on track. That action unfortunately has been missing.

Courteous airport staff

The holding of a workshop by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to train airport staff to become more courteous and passenger-friendly is a welcome initiative. Other than those from the CAA, representatives of various domestic airlines, services firms, the FIA, and the Airport Security Force (ASF) are taking part in the two-day training. Millions use the country’s airports every year, and most of them would agree that the attitude of the staff is nothing to write home about, and that the airports are run in a very unprofessional way. In fact, Pakistanis returning from abroad are very soon reminded that they are back home the moment they step inside the arrival terminal. The immigration staff posted at the counters keep on entertaining requests from influential people, who do not bother to wait in line, thus delaying other passengers.

The same is the case with departing passengers, especially at the ASF baggage check and the flight check-in counters. People have no concept of staying in line, a tendency that, unfortunately, is not checked by the staff on duty. Hopefully, the CAA-organized workshop will make airport employees realize the importance of not only being polite and courteous to travellers but also of ensuring that all passengers are handled at various checkpoints with assembly line ease and order. Since people of all ages and backgrounds use airports, the staff must be trained to handle all categories of passengers, including the sick and the infirm. In addition to that, they should be directed to follow all rules and regulations, including the frequently-flouted no-smoking prohibition. Most airport lounges have CAA help desks but often no one is there to respond to passengers’ complaints. These should be staffed adequately, and those posted there should be savvy and have authority to be in a position to offer tangible assistance to passengers. Realistically speaking, airport organizations need to conduct such training on a more regular basis.