KARACHI, April 7: The Karachi Electric Supply Corporation will get 500 megawatts from Wapda/Pepco networks to meet the gap between power generation and demand and minimise power cuts in the city, says federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf.

At present KESC is getting over 200MW daily from Pepco.

Addressing a news conference after presiding over a meeting on the current power situation in Karachi, Mr Ashraf announced that three committees had been formed to find ways of solving KESC’s problems and oversee the implementation of its decisions.

The minister said Pepco would install a rental power generation unit of 140MW in Nooriabad for providing electricity to Karachi.

“At the same time, we have to conserve energy and control power pilferage. We need the support of media for creating public awareness about the need for energy conservation. We can save 200MW with a slight effort in Karachi alone,” he said.

“The meeting diagnosed reasons to some extent with consensus about the problem. The response of the owners (of the KESC) was cooperative,” the minister said.

Mr Ashraf said that Karachi was facing a daily shortage of 800MW and the meeting decided to provide the KESC with an additional 400MW in six months to help it cope with the crisis.

He said that overcoming the energy crisis was a top priority of the coalition government.

He said Pakistan was facing the crisis because of a shortage of 3,000MW a day, against a daily demand of 10,000MW. “We are without one-thirds of our daily requirement.”

He said not a single megawatt had been added to the national grid over the past 10 to 11 years, including the tenure of the past government which had made tall claims.“Should I call it a deliberate attempt, criminal negligence or simply the anti-people attitude of the previous government, which failed to provide a vital need of daily life for all Pakistanis, be it a common man or an industrialist,” said the minister.

He said the prime minister had already announced a programme to deal with the crisis, by producing 2,200MW additional power in a year’s time. “But in my opinion, this problem will still not be (fully) solved.”

He said a short-term thermal power project required at least three years to be set up and a hydel project seven to eight years.

The minister said the previous government, which used to make claims about “selling extra electricity to India” should be held accountable for the mess.

Raja Pervez Ashraf requested the people of Karachi to save electricity and keep a watch on people involved in power theft. He said markets should be closed by 8pm “like in foreign countries”.

Naser Al Marri of the NI Group of Kuwait and Abdul Aziz Jomaih of Al Jomaih Holding Company of Saudi Arabia, Minister for Privatisation Naveed Qamar, the chief secretary of Sindh, secretary for water and power, ambassador-at-large Salman Farooqui and chairmen of Pepco, KESC, Wapda and Nepra attended the meeting.

One of the committees, headed by Wapda chairman Shakeel Durrani, will look into the ongoing financial dispute between the KESC and Pepco and submit its report in 10 days. It will suggest measures for resolving the issue that resulted in disconnection of power supply from the Wapda network.

The implementation committee, to be headed by the secretary for water and power, will implement all decisions in six months.

The third committee, comprising Raja Pervez Ashraf and Naveed Qamar, will review the implementation status of decisions taken at the meeting.