April 03, 2007	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 14, 1428

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

PESHAWAR, April 2: The NWFP government will file a petition with the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority for securing maximum per unit price for electricity to be generated from the Malakand-III hydel power project.

The provincial government has approved hiring a financial adviser for preparing the petition, which will be soon submitted to Nepra, an official told Dawn on Monday.

He said the NWFP government was intending to attain 4.7 cent per unit price for electricity to be generated from the Malakand-III project in line with the Federal Hydel Power Policy 1995, whereas Wapda, the purchaser, was offering 3.2 cent per unit.

The decision to file a petition with Nepra was taken on Saturday at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sarhad Hydel Development Organisation, the executing agency of the project, the official explained.

The Malakand-III Hydropower Project was due to be completed by 2006 at an estimated cost of $106.15 million. Now it will take one more year because of delay in civil work that will ultimately increase the overall cost of the project.

The project will generate 81 megawatts electricity, out of which the government wants to sell 71 megawatts to Wapda and remaining 10 megawatts would be given to sick industrial units in the province at subsidised rates.

The decision to sell out electricity of the project had been taken at a meeting held on April 17, 2005 that followed a series of meetings for determining the per unit price.

“Initially, Wapda had offered the purchase price at the rate of 3.1 cent per unit, which the NWFP government turned down following which it was slightly revised at 3.2 cent per unit,” the official said.

Wapda had already offered electricity generated from Matal Tan hydropower project located in Kalam and Bong hydel project in Azad Kashmir at the rate of 4.7 cent per unit.—Bureau