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320 Punjab villages electrified

RECORDER REPORT

MULTAN: The Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco) has electrified 320 villages in Southern Punjab out of total 513 villages by spending Rs 250 million funded by European Community (EC).

Over 20,000 electric meters will be supplied to villagers free of cost, while approximately over 80,000 houses are to be covered under the project.

The new connection of electricity is to be installed by paying very nominal charges of Rs 1,000 while the rest of the amount will be deducted at Rs 200 per month in easy installments. The authorities electrifying under the criteria of 200 population and 6 km distance from existing lines.

All the clusters of abadies laying within 2 km of the approved villages are to be electrified. Official source said that the project was approved in 1994 through financing agreement signed between the Government of Pakistan and the European Community. The cost of project is 21 million (ECU) Euro, they said.

Chief Executive, Mepco, Brig. Abbas Ali Khan told Business Recorder that total project would be completed by June 2000. The main objective of the rural electrification project in Southern Punjab is to contribute for the improvement of poor social and economic conditions in rural Punjab, to reduce rural migration to urban established centres.

Provision of electricity to villages will boost up the agriculture infrastructure in the Southern Punjab, he said. The high and low voltage distribution network of 11 and 4 kv will link to the existing national grid system for the benefit of over 80,000 rural households and 2,500 small commercial enterprises in 513 villages.

At present, over 600,000 population of remote areas is being expected to benefit from the project. The project will facilitate the implementation of rural water supply schemes, improve dispensing of rural health services.

The villages were earmarked for EC funding in 1991 located in the three districts of Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh and Sahiwal. The project will involve an approximate 1,000 km each of 11 kv high tension and 4 kv low tension lines, along with some 1,000 transformer stations and service connections for more than 80,000 individual households and 2,500 three phase commercial outlets.

The European Community has provided technical consultancy services throughout the envisaged implementation period. A special Project Management Unit (PMU) was set up and charged with project implementation under the guidance of a steering committee which comprised of a representative from the ministry of water and power, the General Manager (Operations) of Wapda, the Wapda Chief Engineer (Construction, Maintenance and Operation), the chairman Multan Area Electricity Board and the delegations of both the project directors, joint project directors of the PMU.

The project director Imtiaz Hussain Qureshi said that physical progress of electrification was started in July 1999. The total cost of the project was estimated at 25 million ECU, of which 21 million ECU was funded by European Community as a grant.

The study has revealed that over 13 districts of Southern Punjab, Multan, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Khanewal, Sahiwal, Pakpattan, Vehari, Lodhran, Bahawalnagar, Rahimyar Khan, Rajanpur, Leyyah, Muzaffargarh will enjoy from electricity.

Commenting over the project, farm experts have declared it a step towards boosting up the agriculture.

The training programmes were designed and executed with the assistance from the foreign and local consultants on three specific areas. Training for Wapda's and the contractor's workings in the safe installation, operation and maintenance practices including the effective utilisation of related equipments furnished by the project management training through on job training methods as well as selected short-term courses or fellowship at suitable venues in Europe or other developing countries with active cooperation programmes with the EC, in the design, installation, operation and maintenance of medium voltage power distribution system for suitably qualified and motivated Wapda engineers and managers in the power distribution sector.

A multistage programme to develop and institutionalize consumers and beneficiary participation in project design and implementation, operation and maintenance procedure and programme optimisation, implemented in close interaction with the Area Electricity Board Multan.