June 16, 2006	Friday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 19, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, June 15: Sindh has sought funds from the centre for providing electricity to 906 villages in 2006-07. This would be one of the biggest rural electrification programmes in Sindh for which the provincial government, according to official sources, has asked the centre to initially provide Rs302 million.

A total of 7,874 villages in Sindh and Balochistan, which are 20km from the national grid, will get electricity.

However, the sources said, preference would be given to the Sindh government’s request for electrification of the 906 villages in the province.

The Sindh government has approached the Planning Commission for starting technical evaluation and management of the phase-wise electrification programme in the province.

The villages to be provided with electricity will be identified by the Sindh government. Villages in coastal areas and some other regions will be given priority.

In line with federal government’s plan to provide electricity to the entire country in the next three years, Wapda and the AEDB have been directed to cooperate with each other to step up efforts to electrify through renewable energy technologies remote villages which cannot be electrified through on-grid application due to technical and financial hindrances.

The sources said the overall electricity generation programme needed to be accelerated for meeting power requirements of the country.

The installed capacity of electricity (Wapda, KESC, Kanupp and IPPs) stood at 19,439mw during July-March 2005-06, compared to 19,389mw during the same period in 2004-05.

The installed capacity of Wapda stood at 11,363mw during July-March of the outgoing financial year, of which hydel accounted for 56.9 per cent and thermal accounted for 43.1 per cent.

During the first three quarters of 2005-06, 63,978gw electricity was generated against 61,758gw produced in the same period last year.