THE Punjab chief minister’s irrational haste to complete the 525 MW Nandipur power project has resulted in fiasco. We are hearing and watching these days a lot of noise regarding the Nandipur power project in the media.

Reportedly, there have been massive capital as well as operational cost overruns compared to the budget of the project. The Nandipur project is now producing zero megawatt of electricity. The Punjab chief minister has blamed the previous government for the fiasco by saying that the PPP law minister kept the file of Nandipur project in his drawer for two and a half years.

We all know that the Nandipur power project has been executed, completed and operated under the PML-N government. So people would be wondering what the poor planning, ill-execution and mishandling of the Nandipur project have to do with law minister of previous government.

I believe the PML-N won election 2013 mainly on the basis of its promise to remove darkness of from the country.

The PML-N has clearly failed to deliver so far on this promise. Almost half of its present term has passed but the PML-N has not shown even signs of solving the energy crisis.

It is time the PML-N government shared with the public the fact sheet of its performance in the field of energy since it came to power. I think the people need to know the financial and operational facts of the Nandipur project. What are the cost overruns and their reasons?

Ejaz Ahmad Magoon

Lahore

Published in Dawn, October 6th , 2015

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