02 October 2004	Saturday	16 Shaban 1425

LAHORE, Oct 1: There will be no load shedding in the country as the water and power ministry has arranged 500MW of power by making some independent power producers (IPPs) postpone their maintenance.

This was claimed by Federal Water and Power Minister Liaquat Jatoi at a press conference here on Friday. He said the Saba Power with 120MW and Roche Power with 395MW had agreed to put off their routine maintenance and started contributing to the national grid.

The Japan Power with 107MW was partially online and contributing 67 per cent power to the Wapda distribution system, he said. He said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz took personal note of a news item about the load shedding plan and directed the ministry to take some remedy. "There is a substantial shortfall in hydel generation, which has been worsened by the maintenance schedule of the IPPs," he said.

Lamenting the Wapda inefficiency, the minister said some of its generation plants had been shut down for months because of minor faults like bearing breakdowns or clutch problems. All these plants were being brought online on an emergency basis. Plants at Shahdara near Lahore and Kotri were two immediate examples.

The minister said he had given two studies to the National Engineering Services Pakistan (Nespak) to improve customer service and highway link between Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Both these projects should bring substantial amount of consultancy fee to Nespak. He said Nespak and Wapda would jointly decide the maintenance schedule of all power generation plants so that people did not suffer because of load shedding.