PESHAWAR, Oct 13: Private sector representatives on the NWFP Investment Facilitation Council will urge the provincial government to supply electricity from the provincial public sector Malakand-III hydel power station at subsidised rates to sick industrial units in the province.

The provincial government will be asked in the council’s next to utilise the provincial public sector Malakand-III hydel power generation unit for reviving sick industrial units in the province instead of selling at ‘throwaway’ price to the Water and Development Authority (Wapda).

Set up at a cost of over Rs6 billion, the Malakand-III hydel power unit, with a generation capacity of 80 MW, will start functioning from the start of next year.

The second PML-N-led government in the province had decided to execute the multi-billion-Rupee Malakand-III hydel power project in the provincial public sector with an aim to utilize electricity for the uplift of the provincial industrial sector by supplying power to manufacturers at subsidised rates.

However, the sitting provincial government is in the process of negotiating a deal with Wapda which, according to business circles, will procure Malakand-III hydel power at a price much lower than what the Authority is paying to independent power producers.

Manufacturers want the provincial government to sell electricity from the Malakand-III hydel power station to sick industrial units at the price it has been offered by Wapda.

The Investment Facilitation Council (IFC), a provincial public sector forum headed by NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani, is scheduled to hold a meeting after the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr.

Other than discussing ways and means for attracting investment in the province, the council is also likely to dwell at the prospects of selling electricity from the Malakand-III hydel power unit to the manufacturing sector.

Business leaders and industrialists representing different chambers of commerce and associations from across the province held a meeting here on Wednesday to prepare recommendations for the IFC’s upcoming meeting.

According to business circles, office bearers of trade and industrialists’ bodies were in agreement that the provincial government should sell electricity from the Malakand-III hydel power unit at subsidised rates to help revive sick industrial units which would help create thousands of job opportunities and generate economic activities in the province.

Aimed at creating a business-friendly environment to encourage investment, particularly direct foreign investment, in the province, the IFC will ponder on the recommendations to be submitted to it by the private sector and official circles concerned.

Other than asking for selling electricity to sick industrial units, the provincial government would also be recommended to improve the standards of provincial public sector institutions imparting technical education to prepare skilled labour and enlarge the human resource base in the province.

Besides, the government will also be asked to activate the newly-established investment facilitation centre, set up in the premises of the Sarhad Development Authority (SDA), making it an effective entity to facilitate investors exploring investment opportunities in the Frontier province.

Nauman Wazir, a local industrialist, said that instead of selling electricity to Wapda, the provincial government should supply power from the Malakand-III hydel station to NWFP-based industries by using Wapda’s transmission system.

He said that Wapda had offered Rs1.92 per unit price to the NWFP for hydel power to be generated by the Malakand-III power station.

He said according to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority’s rules, the provincial government should pay Wapda wheeling charges at a fixed rate of 27 paisa per unit for transporting power from the Malakand-III hydel power unit to the designated industrial estates.

Supply of electricity at subsidised rate would bring down cost of production for NWFP industrialists, making them able to compete with manufacturers from other parts of the country.