CHITRAL, June 30: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti has said that Chitral will get Rs200 million a year as its share from the income of Lawi-Drosh hydropower generation unit.

Mr Hoti inaugurated work on the power generation unit here on Saturday. The 69 MW power generation project involves an estimated completion cost of Rs12.23 billion and it will take the provincial public sector Pakhtunkhwa Hydel Development Organisation five years to complete the project.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said that the provincial government had chalked out a comprehensive action plan for hydropower generation by exploiting water potential across the province.

He said that Chitral was rich with water resources and of total 24 planned projects nine including Lawi hydropower project would be completed in this district.

“The hydel power projects will not only provide electricity to the area, but also open up new avenues of progress,” he said. Mr Hoti said that the notion of ‘Khpala Khawra, Khpal Ikhtiar’ was being extended to districts other than Mardan and Charsadda and the rate of royalty for hydropower generation had been doubled.

He said that Chitral district would get Rs200 million a year from Lawi project, and the royalty amount would increase with completion of other projects.

About other projects in the district, he said that Shoghor-Seen project (132 MW) and Shoshghar project (144 MW) would be started in due course of time, while feasibility study of other six projects was in the final stages. He said that due to paucity of funds the government would execute some of the projects through public-private partnership.

The chief minister came down hard on those protesting against loadshedding and said that certain elements were inciting people for their vested interests, which was unfair.

“The ANP has adopted the other way to respond to power crisis and launched projects for power generation to permanently solve the problem of loadshedding,” he said and advised other parties to follow them and stop provoking people for gaining political mileage.

Mr Hoti enumerated development projects launched by his government in different sectors during past four years, which included construction of Abdul Wali Khan by-pass road and establishment of sub-campus of Abdul Wali Khan University in Chitral. He announced to upgrade the status of a number of girls middle schools in Drosh to high level. On this occasion, a number of people, including women, announced to join Awami National Party and the chief minister put red caps on their heads. Zafar Ahmed Khan, a former MPA from Chitral, was prominent among those who joined the ANP.

Provincial ministers Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Bashir Bilour, Rahimdad Khan, Saleem Khan and Hidayatullah were also present on the occasion. Earlier, the chief minister formally inaugurated work on the project by unveiling the plaque.