LAHORE: The Nandipur Power Project is presently generating over 100 megawatts of electricity and propaganda about its closure is baseless and unfounded, Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali said on Saturday.

Addressing a press conference at Wapda House, he claimed that generation by hydroelectric projects had risen from 2,200MW to 4,369MW, allowing the power sector managers to turn off thermal units and save some money.

He predicted that the Nandipur Power Project would soon start generating more than 180MW and would ultimately achieve the potential of generating 525MW.

The minister promised that the second audit report on the project would be made public and said: “There has not been a single incident of corruption and malpractice in any power project as the PML-N government has kept things transparent.”

He said that industrial units had been exempted from loadshedding and load management had been limited to six hours a day in urban areas and eight hours in rural areas, excepting those areas where line losses and power theft were rampant.

He said the government had achieved its generation target of 16,900MW this year, which would be increased in 2016.

Grid stations have also been installed at a cost of Rs30 billion this year and work on some other grid stations is under way.

The minister claimed that circular debt stood at around Rs250bn because of subsidies and power theft of billions of rupees.

“Some influential landlords have defaulted on bills of Rs4bn and the distribution companies have disconnected supplies to their tube-wells in different parts of the country. The Quetta Electric Supply Company’s dues on tube-wells are over Rs130bn. The ministry has sought Rangers’ help to recover the dues,” he said.

APP adds: Mr Ali said that power plants based on Re-gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) would be operational by June 2017 and 400km transmission lines would be laid for them by December 2016.

He said the government had saved Rs110bn in three RLNG projects of cumulative capacity of 3,650MW being installed in Bhikkhi (Sheikhupura), Balloki (Kasur) and Haveli Bahadur Shah (Jhang).

In reply to a question, he said the government had saved Rs220bn by introducing ‘merit audit’ in the power sector and improving the recovery rate of the distribution companies.

The minister said that PC-I of Rs58bn for the Nandipur project had been prepared by the previous governments, adding that vested interests and massive corruption had turned the project into junk despite the spending of Rs33bn before the PML-N assumed power in 2013.

Had the PML government decided to abandon the project, the nation would have to pay $160 million fine to the companies concerned, he said. Therefore, the government took a wise decision and made the power plant operational within the fiscal limit of Rs50bn.

Mr Ali said that generation of inexpensive electricity, particularly from hydel sources, was the priority of the government. “We are generating electricity as per demand of the distribution companies. We prefer hydel and other inexpensive sources and operate furnace oil- or diesel-based plants only when needed,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2015