PESHAWAR, July 5: Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) would complete electricity related development projects costing Rs4.8 billion in the NWFP during the fiscal 2003-04.

He was speaking during the ‘Meet the Press’ programme of the local press club here.

Unveiling Wapda’s development plan for the NWFP and Peshawar for the new financial year here on Saturday, Wapda chairman Lt Gen Zulfiqar Ali Khan said that out of this amount, Rs3.5 billion would be spent on the construction of seven grid stations, improvement of transmission lines and replacement of the old electric wires from the urban areas.

Moreover, he added, over-loaded transformers would be replaced with transformers with higher load capacities.

Referring to the village electrification programme, Gen Zulfikar said, some 1,784 partially electrified villages would be electrified during 2003-04 of which 500 are in the NWFP at a cost of one billion rupees.

Pesco, he said, had completed development projects worth a billion rupees during 2002-03, including construction of 50 new feeders and improvement of 618 low-tension power lines.

After completion, major projects like Gomal Zam, Mirani and Kurram Tangi dams would provide about 5.4 million acre-foot of additional water storage capacity, he said.

Basha Dam study had been completed and experts had declared it a feasible project, he said, adding that the project would be capable of generating 3,000 megawatts of power besides having a storage capacity of seven million acre-foot. Actual construction work on Basha dam would start in 2006 while it is expected to be completed by the year 2013, he added.

In the next 25 years, Wapda projects would help generate 23,000MW power while water resources would by increased by 18 to 25 per cent.

Referring to the dispute between the power utility and the NWFP government over payment of net hydel profits, he said that the provincial governments should move the Council of Common Interest if it had any reservations in this regard.

Rejecting the stand of the NWFP government over the issue, he said that the power utility was paying net hydel profit share to the NWFP in line with the CCI decisions, adding that Wapda was making full payment in this regard.

Referring to the meeting between Frontier’s chief minister Akram Durrani and himself, the Wapda chairman said that he had been assured that the provincial government would clear arrears outstanding against it in a couple of days.

Deliberating upon Wapda’s agreements with the independent power producers (IPPs), the Wapda chairman said that new agreements signed with the IPPs helped the Authority to save huge amount.

Had these agreements not signed, the power tariff would have risen by one rupee per unit.

Denying the assertion that Wapda had not accommodated victims displaced by the Ghazi Barotha Power Project properly, he said that they had been given a very lucrative package.

On this occasion, he claimed that performance of his organization had improved manifold during past four years as the authority, he added, achieved recovery target of Rs 215 billion set for the last fiscal 2002-03.

“Wapda is the only organisation in the country, which achieved 100 per cent recovery target from the private consumers during 2002-03”, he claimed.