KARACHI: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has urged the people enduring over 12 hours of loadshedding to remain patient for some time and promised that 4000-5000MW would to be added the national grid in three years and 21,000MW in eight to 10 years and the power crisis would be overcome.

“It is not possible to resolve this crisis in a day. It needs patience. You will have to be patient,” the prime minister said, adding that when he had come to power, the country was in the grip of darkness, the exchequer was in the red and poverty and unemployment were at their peak.

Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony of a 660MW coal-based power plant at Port Qasim here on Tuesday, Mr Sharif said it was the first under the Pakistan-China economic corridor project in which Beijing would invest $33 billion.

He said the ground-breaking of another 660MW unit of the project would take place in a few days. In all, he announced initiation of work on 15,800MW coal-fired power projects in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab. “It is not easy to put together $2bn investment in less than 10 months,” he said referring to the estimated cost of the 1,320MW Port Qasim project co-sponsored by Power Construction Corporation of China and Al-Mirqab Capital of Qatar.

He said this demonstrated international interest in Pakistan and also a success of his government’s economic and foreign policies as friends like China and Qatar were coming forward to support the country.

Former Ehtesab Bureau chief Saifur Rehman, who was behind an investigation campaign launched against independent power producers during the second PML-N government, has played a key role in persuading the Chinese and Qatari firms to invest in the Port Qasim project. Mr Rehman accompanied the prime minister at the ceremony.

Managing Director of the Private Power and Infrastructure Board N.A. Zuberi, who had signed the project’s agreement with the Chinese and Qatari firms, could not attend the ceremony because he has been arrested by the National Accountability Bureau in connection with the rental power project scandal.

The prime minister said that after coming to power he had spent most of his time on resolving the energy crisis, adding that the Port Qasim project would reduce tariff because of its low generation cost and provide affordable electricity to the people after its completion in 2017.

He said Al-Mirqab Capital was also interested in two projects of 660MW at Gadani where he would launch a 6,600MW coal power park in a couple of weeks.

He said he would attend the ground-breaking of the first 660MW plant in Thar and Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah would be happy to know that 10 projects of 660MW each would be set up at the mouth of Thar coalmine.

Besides, work on four coal-fired projects of 660MW each in Punjab’s Rahimyar Khan, Sahiwal, Jhang and Faisalabad and a 1000MW solar power plant in Bahawalpur will be completed soon. The prime minister said the 4,200MW Dasu power project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 4,500MW Diamer-Bhasha dam in Gilgit-Baltistan would be launched soon.

The prime minister said his government was working on energy sector projects in all the four provinces and noted that the country had achieved 23,000MW capacity in 65 years of which only 13,800MW was now available, but he would add 21,000MW to the national grid in eight to 10 years.

He said that not only the energy sector projects but motorways, highways and railway tracks were also part of the $33bn Pakistan-China economic corridor and he was pushing forward the inauguration of Karachi-Lahore motorway as part of the corridor.

Mr Sharif recalled that when he had started the Lahore-Islamabad motorway project 20 years ago, he was criticised by all quarters but now they were praising his decision. He asked why no other leader started Karachi-Lahore motorway, why the previous governments did not start energy projects before shortages appeared and why his government was now expected to deliver on all fronts, from power generation to motorways and road construction.

He praised the Chinese government for its contribution to Pakistan’s development and financing of energy projects at a time when the country’s economy and banks did not have the capacity to finance more than one power project.