LAHORE, Aug 21: Wapda Chairman Traiq Hamid has announced installation of new thermal plants for increasing the power-generation capacity by 1,350MW by December 2007.

Addressing participants in the National Management Course of the Pakistan Administrative Staff College at the Wapda House here on Monday, Mr Hamid said the authority was working for enhancing the power-generation capacity on war footings to save the consumers from inconvenience caused by loadshedding. For the purpose, it was not only installing new thermal power plants in the country but also making efforts for increasing the capacity of the existing ones, he added.

He said the authority was importing two container-mounted generators having 250MW total capacity on rental basis, which would start production by December this year. Three power plants with a total capacity of 600MW (200MW each) were being installed outside Lahore, Gujranwala and Faisalabad, which would be completed by December 2007. Meanwhile, a 500MW combined cycle power plant was also being constructed in Chichokimallian, he added.

He said the tariff had been increased after September 2003, but the authority had been able to increase its revenue to a record Rs267 billion by providing electricity to 15.9 million consumers this year. It had electrified 13,000 villages last year and planned to electrify 15,000 villages by the end of current financial year, he said.

Wapda was committed to fulfilling the government’s pledge to electrify every village with more than 10 houses by December 2007, he said.

To a question, he said the power tariff for the local industrial consumers was less than what was being charged from the industry in the neighbouring countries. Wapda was also providing a subsidy of Rs.46 billion to consumers.

Dilating on the water issue, he said Pakistan was using only 13 per cent of its available water, by constructing reservoirs, against the international average of 40 per cent. Experts, he said, were unanimous that reservoirs should be built for bringing more land under cultivation and generation of cheap electricity. President Gen Pervez Musharraf had announced construction of five dams by 2016, of which detailed engineering and ancillary work on Diamir Bhasha Dam, to be completed in 2010, was going on schedule.

Member (Power) Anwar Khalid, Member (Water) Mushtaq Ahmed Chaudhry, Secretary Wapda Muhammad Arif Khan and senior officials of the authority also attended the meeting.