BAHAWALPUR: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated the first unit of the Quaid-i-Azam Solar Power Park (QASP) here on Tuesday and said that the electricity crisis would be ended by 2017-18.

The 500-acre solar power park for the plant has been set up by the Punjab government in 11 months at a cost of Rs 15 billion with Chinese assistance. It went into trial run last month and is now providing 100MW to the national grid.

The park’s generation capacity will be raised to 1,000MW in two subsequent phases. Work on the next phase has been launched and is expected to be completed by next year. On completion, the plant will become one of the major solar power projects in the world.

Speaking on the occasion, the prime minister said that overcoming energy crisis and eradicating terrorism and poverty were priorities of his government.

Work has been undertaken on several major projects to end loadshedding and 2,000MW will be generated by the coal-fired Thar power project and 1,320 MW by a similar project in Sahiwal.

He congratulated Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his team for completing first unit of the solar plant ahead of the schedule.

He said 800 people would get jobs at the solar park. He announced a gift of Rs20 million for workers. He also said that Tamgha-i-Khidmat would be conferred upon the plant’s Chief Executive Officer Syed Najam Shah for speedy completion of the project.

Talking about the situation in the country, Mr Sharif praised the contributions made by the armed forces in overcoming the menace of terrorism. He claimed that conditions had considerably improved in South Waziristan with the implementation of the National Action Plan to counter terrorism.

“The internally displaced persons have started returning to their homes in the agency after restoration of peace.”

Similarly, he said, law and order situation had also improved in Karachi where incidents of extortion and kidnapping for ransom were on the decline and now there was need to improve the political atmosphere in the city.

The prime minister said he had suggested to the Chinese ambassador, who attended the ceremony, to set up a joint committee to monitor progress of work on the solar power project. He said he himself would continue to monitor the work on the project to ensure that it was completed in time.

He praised what he described as a great achievement of Shahbaz Sharif to get a discount of $2 million from the Chinese company working on the solar project, which was the lowest bidder. He added that the Transparency International should have taken note of this.

The prime minister said the construction of Karachi-Lahore motorway and Kashgar-Gwadar highway would help to bring about a revolution in the country.

Earlier, Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong described the solar power plant as a proof of his country’s cooperation with Pakistan and said it would add a new chapter in friendly relations between the two countries.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2015

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