September 06, 2007	Thursday	Sha'aban 23, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Sept 5: Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi has asked the NWFP government to remove all bottlenecks and resolve the community issues which have delayed completion of the 101MW Gabral-Kalam hydropower project on Swat River for more than a year.

The direction came on Wednesday while the minister was chairing a meeting attended by senior officials of the federal and provincial governments to resolve the issues pertaining to the aforesaid project.

An official announcement said the minister told the meeting that the country was facing a power shortage and with the completion of the project 101MW would be added to the national grid system at rather cheap rates.

He said the federal government was determined to exploit the hydel power potential to the maximum and would remove all hurdles in this regard.

The government was pursuing a proactive and liberal policy to attract investment to generate more power, he added.

The chief executive officer of the Swat Hydropower Limited said the project was being politicised by some local community leaders who were creating a law and order situation and they were not in a position to resume investigative work.

The NWFP home secretary informed the minister of the steps taken by the provincial government and assured them that all possible assistance would be provided to the sponsors of the Swat Hydropower Limited to resolve the issues.

He also held out the assurance that the NWFP government would deploy security forces for the safety of workers.