LAHORE, Oct 13: Federal Water and Power Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Monday reassured the nation that loadshedding would end by the end of next year and also instructed the distribution companies to end “unannounced loadshedding” forthwith.

He was talking to journalists after addressing the inaugural session of 20th International Congress on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) at Aiwan-i-Iqbal. Several hydel projects with a total capacity of 50,000MW are in the pipeline. They would take time to come online and help overcome the crisis.

The minister claimed that the construction of Diamir-Bhasha Dam would start by September 2009 and more hydro-power projects would follow as the government was focussed on the hydel generation to bring prices down.

He added President Asif Ali Zardari had also directed the authorities concerned to work mainly on hydel projects on a war footing.

The minister criticised the previous government for providing heavy subsidies on electricity and oil, which led to Rs172 billion debts to power generation and oil marketing companies. The present government was now in the process of withdrawing them.

He said the government would also start construction of other dams for which experts were being consulted at the highest level and it would prove to be a major breakthrough with regards to power crisis.

Talking about Baglihar Dam, the minister said Pakistan had full right over Chenab waters and it must be provided at least 55,000 cusecs water in Chenab at Head Marala.

“Any project, which affects river flow to Pakistan, will not be acceptable.” Pakistan reserved the right to go to any international forum to get its share and resolve treaty implementation problems, he said.

Detailing measures to generate energy from alternative sources, he said the first windmill project was being executed by a Turkish company along the coastal-line of Badin and it would start functioning within next two or three weeks. The government was also striving hard to get energy from Thal Coal Project and work on it would start at the end of the year.

He said the government was mulling over operating streetlights and industrial boilers on solar energy.

Pakistan National Committee on ICID in cooperation with Wapda has organised the week-long event under the theme of “Participatory integrated water resource management- From concepts to actions.”