ISLAMABAD, Sept 24: Two separate studies are being launched at a total cost of Rs349 million under the energy sector capacity enhancement programme to determine the nature and scope of KESC’s retrenchment and redeployment plan to adequately safeguard the livelihoods of workers to be made redundant under the utility’s privatization, a senior official told Dawn .

KESC’s total staff strength is around 15,000 including around 1,600 officers.

According to one estimate, over 3,500 employees of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) are expected to be retrenched when the utility is transferred to private sector shortly, the senior government official said.

He said the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) would approve the launching of these studies on Sept 27, with a foreign exchange component of Rs236 million to be funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). International and local consultants would be appointed to undertake the task.

A committee comprising finance and water and power ministries, energy wing of the Planning Commission and ADB representatives would also be constituted to coordinate and guide the implementation of the project that would be completed by 2005.

According to a summary sent to Ecnec, the restructured and privatized KESC is expected to have different tariff regime and some retrenchment of the existing labour force is also expected.

The two studies would be followed by a Rs13.7 billion plan to rehabilitate KESC’s generation, transmission and distribution network over a period of three years, the sources said.

The two studies for capacity building would identify the channels of consumer advocacy, strengthen consumer participation and their capacity in the proposed competitive electricity market within a consultative framework involving key stakeholders.

This will also design and conduct a public awareness campaign to build consensus for the ADB funded $355 million Energy Sector Restructuring programme.

An amount of Rs100 million has been allocated under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) while the finance minister has granted an anticipatory approval of Rs20 million for the project.