MAJHOI: The government is committed to completing all power projects on schedule to rid the country of outages and boost industrial growth, said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday.

The prime minister visited the site to witness progress on the Neelum-Jhelum Hydro­power Project (NJHP) which is designed to produce 969MW of hydel electricity and decrease reliance on thermal power generation.

Following a briefing, Mr Sharif asked the officials concerned to increase the pace of work. “We will do our best to fulfil the promises made to the nation and end loadshedding in the country. Who would be more worried than me [about the completion of these projects],” said Mr Sharif, adding that “we will not let any obstacle come in our way in this regard.”

The prime minister ordered that locals be given preference in jobs in the project. He was informed by the chief executive officer of the project that around 78 per cent of the jobs had been given to local residents.

The project envisages a diversion of the Neelum river through tunnels at Nauseri about 41km upstream of Muzaffarabad and draining the water in the Jhelum river at Chatter Kalas in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, where the powerhouse will be located. The project being executed by the China Gezhouba Group Company was launched in January 2008 and is likely to be completed by mid-2017.

Mr Sharif was informed that over 85.3pc of the work had been completed.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2016