CHITRAL: MNA Shahzada Iftikharuddin has said that Chitral district has a great potential for hydropower generation which would be exploited to its optimum. He said that energy produced in the district would be enough to fulfil about half of the total demand of the country.

Talking to the media persons on phone here on Friday, he said that a seminar on ‘Chitral’s role in CPEC’ would be held next month in Chitral to sensitise the stakeholders in the hydropower generation.

He said that Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal and joint chairman on CPEC in the Senate and National Assembly, Mushahid Hussain Syed, would participate in the seminar besides heads of the Planning Commission, Wapda and Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation.

The lawmaker from Chitral said that initially seven sites had been identified for consideration in the seminar, which included Kari-Broze project (455MW), Kessu-Sweer (300MW), Kuragh-Mori Lusht (262MW), Atahk (200MW), Laspur-Sarghuz (165MW) and Shoghor-Seen (132MW).

He said that there were scores of other sites for hydropower projects in Chitral whose feasibility study could not be undertaken due to resource constraint.

The MNA said that the focus would be on the overall development of Chitral like promotion of tourism industry and exploitation of mines and minerals.

He said that completion of the 9-kilometer Lowari tunnel providing an all-weather route to the district would make it possible to extend it to the Central Asian states through the Wakhan Corridor.

He said that the seminar would bring to limelight the significance of the hitherto neglected part of the country in its extreme north.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2017