Power crisis in Upper Chitral persists due to poor management
BOONI: Power crisis in Upper Chitral continues even after the completion of the 108 megawatt Golen Gol powerhouse, especially people of Booni are enduring prolonged outages even in Ramazan.
After commissioning of the Golen Gol power station, 34mw was allocated for Chitral by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
But due to mismanagement by power utility companies such as PEDO and PESCO and absence of a proper transmission system, Upper Chitral is still without electricity.
On the other hand, the production of the powerhouse decreased to just seven megawatts in the winter.
People of Upper Chitral under the platform of Tehreek Huqooq-e-Awam Upper Chitral have organized protests for many years but the issue remains unresolved.
A press release issued by the Tehreek today said a delegation held a meeting at the DC office with ADC M. Irfanuddin in the chair in which officials from Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (PEDO) were also present.
The Tehreek representatives expressed their concerns over the power crisis even after volume of water had increased in the stream feeding the Golen Gol powerhouse increasing its production.
They demanded that the PEDO office should be shifted from Golen in Lower Chitral to Booni, the headquarters of Upper Chitral district.
The PEDO officials told the meeting that there was no shortage of electricity but poor transmission lines were the main cause of power crisis in Upper Chitral.
They said in the summer the growing tree branches hit the lines in case of even light rain or wind leading to snapping of power.
Secondly, when there is a fault in the transmission lines it is very difficult to find it out on time and hence the delay in restoration of the supply.
The officials assured the meeting that soon a tree trimming activity would be carried out to ensure uninterrupted power supply to Upper Chitral.
The ADC supported the demands of the Tehreek delegation and said the office of PEDO would be shifted to Booni soon.
It may be noted that the power crisis in Upper Chitral began after the Reshun powerhouse was damaged in the 2015 floods. The KP government has failed to restore the facility so far even though its rehabilitation was inaugurated by the chief minister last year.
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