Tendersinfo keep you informed about the latest events in the national and international Procurement Industry. Procurement News provides in-depth coverage of the procurement industry, including contract awards, contract additions, new contract wins, mergers and acquisitions. Tendersinfo through its tender news section provides an update on all domestic and global tendering opportunities, invitation to bid & trade leads.
Pakistan : ECNEC approves 3511MW energy projects
Publish Date : 06-Jul-2013
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) met at the Prime Minister’s Office with the Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar in the chair and approved five projects amounting to Rs.1303.0 billion. These include K-I and K-II Nuclear Projects situated in Karachi (Province Sindh, generation capacity 2200 MW, cost Rs.958729.0 million) Nandipur (Province Punjab, generation capacity 425 MW, cost Rs.57380 million), Neelum-Jhelum hydro electric project (AJK, generation capacity 969 MW, cost Rs.274.0 billion).
In his opening remarks, Senator Ishaq Dar said that ECNEC is a premier constitutional body where all projects amounting to more than one billion are approved. The Minister said that the previous practice had been that anticipatory approvals were given by the Finance Minister for approval of projects, a discretion that he would like to dispense with and would like every project to be discussed in this forum before it is approved. The Minister said that this would mean that more frequent meetings of ECNEC would be held.
Finance Minister said that finances for all the approved projects should be timely arranged and their monitoring would be carried out regularly so that they do not suffer or delayed from want of resources. The projects should be completed on schedule so that its benefits and value for the money are achieved.
Finance Minister said that the government had taken a bold decision to settle the circular debt which stood at Rs.503 billion and has already paid Rs.322 billion to private power producers while the remaining would be settled within announced time. This measure would add 1700MW of electricity to the national grid. The IPPs have been mandated to use coal instead of oil and bring about the change in the next 18 months which will bring down the average cost of power production.
Mr. Ishaq Dar said that today’s meeting is important because we are taking up energy projects with the total generation capacity of 3511MW which when completed would not only be a substantial addition to the national grid but also produce electricity at low cost. The Minister said that 15 years back the energy mix was 75% based on cheap fuel and 25% on costly oil whereas it has now totally changed to 25% based on cheap fuel and 75% on furnace oil.
Mr. Ishaq Dar informed the participants that the Prime Minister had decided that future energy projects should be undertaken with the view that they can be completed within the shortest possible time and produce power at low cost.
While discussing the Neelum-Jhelum Hydro Electric Project which has been approved at revised cost of Rs.274.0 billion against the previous cost of Rs.84.0 billion, the meeting decided that a probe into the huge cost overrun and delay in the project should be made and submitted so that responsibility can be fixed.
