LAHORE, May 16: Senior Provincial Minister Raja Riaz says the government is taking all possible steps to overcome the ongoing energy crisis.

The minister said this while speaking at the concluding ceremony of the SME Fair at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) here on Friday.

He said the federal government had announced an energy conservation plan for bridging a demand and supply gap created due to the failure of the previous government to increase the power generation.

Mr Riaz said that India had built scores of small hydro-power projects in the recent past, but a plan prepared in 1994 to generate 600MW electricity by building small power station projects on canals in Punjab could not be implemented for some unknown reasons.

LCCI president Mian Muhammad Ali said the government should not only launch the Kalabagh dam project without further delay but also tap alternative energy to reduce dependence on costly thermal energy.

He said the infrastructure should also be upgraded besides improving law and order situation to encourage investment.

Inviting minister’s attention towards the fast-increasing environmental pollution, LCCI Vice-President Shafqat Saeed Piracha urged him to evolve a strategy to control it.