May 06, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 18, 1428

LAHORE, May 5: Wapda on Saturday announced load-shedding lasting at least two hours all over the country, closure of shops at 8pm and staggered weekly holidays in industrial units from Monday.

The announcement was made by Wapda chairman Traiq Hamid while briefing reporters at the Wapda House here.

He said that power generation shortfall was likely to reach 400-500 megawatts and it would be equally distributed between eight distribution companies and rural and urban areas according to the federal government’s policy. He said that there would be half-an-hour load-shedding after every six hours. New construction work would remain suspended till improvement in the power generation situation by mid-June to avoid additional power outages, he said.

The Wapda chairman said that labour departments in all provinces had been directed to get all shops closed by 8.30pm under the provisions of Shops and Esatblishments Act. He said that shopkeepers should be asked to close their doors at 8pm, allowing them till 8.30pm to deal with last customers, manage goods and close cash registers. He said that hotels, restaurants, bakeries and pharmacies would be exempted, adding that there would also be exemption from compulsory closures on Satruday nights. Billboard illuminations would be switched off at 8pm for a psychological effect.

He said that the industry had been asked to cut operation of continuous processes by 25 per cent during peak consumption hours between 6pm and 10pm and introduce staggered weekly holidays. Farmers had been asked to operate tubewells at night.

He said that power generation was 1,480MW higher this year. Wapda was generating 500-550MW more hydroelectric power as the Indus River System Authority had allowed it to utilise 4 million acre-foot water in Tarbela and other dams for power generation. It was allowing a release of 85,000 to 90,000 cusecs from dams for power generation every day. Ten private thermal power stations were being built around Lahore and Gujranwala

He said that power consumption had increased because of sale of 2.6 million airconditioners, 1.2 million televisions, five million fans and 750,000 washing machines and electrification of 15,000 villages during the past year.

He said that Wapda had reduced transmission losses from 7 per cent to 6.3 per cent during the past three years, adding that a sum of Rs21 billion had been invested in new power generation projects during the past year. Projects worth Rs18 billion were in pipeline.