ISLAMABAD, July 13: The Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) will get an amount of $54 million as first instalment of loan from the World Bank to improve its distribution and transmission system.

This was stated by Iesco’s Chief Executive Raja Abdul Ghafoor, while talking to this agency here on Sunday.

He said the loan would be spent to enhance efficiency of the company by reducing technical and commercial losses and increasing the availability of electricity.

He said the company would also receive $32 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to improve power supply chain in its region.

The Iesco chief said the company had planned a number of projects to strengthen its network including rehabilitation and energy loss reduction, distribution of electricity and rural electrification.

He said the company had provided 97,725 electricity connections to consumers during a year, while, he added, by the end of July a target of 101,380 connections would be achieved.

He said during this period the company provided 86,826 connections to domestic consumers, 10,059 to commercial consumers, 497 to industrial consumers, 294 tubewell connections and 40 streetlights.

Mr Ghafoor said during the period three grid stations - Satellite, DHA and Chakrihad - had been upgraded from 26MVA to 40MVA, while Talagang and Bisal grid stations were upgraded from 66MVA to 132MVA.—APP