PATOKI (BALOKI) (APP)- Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has said the government is working to exploit all the indigenous resources negating the impression that the government is only focusing on thermal power generation. Addressing the inauguration ceremony of an Independent Power Project at Baloki by Oriented Power Ltd at Baloki on Saturday, he said the tariff of power generated by Orient Power would come to around Rs 5.5/kwh which, he added, would be the cheapest power in the system other than hydel and would help offset some of the higher cost generation. He said the project had started supplying power to the national grid with regular intervals in December 2009 however, he added that he was told that its technical commissioning, after passing all the required tests, had started on May 24,2010. He remarked that under the guidance of the Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, he was working day and night with his dedicated team to minimize supply and demand gap in power sector. He said that approximately 900 Plus MW of new RPPs and IPPs capacity had been added in the system, adding another 800 MW of IPPs coming on-stream within the next three months, followed by yet another 600 MW of IPPs to come on stream in the last quarter of this year. Rental power projects were in addition to it, he added. Not withstanding the fact that load shedding could not be minimized during last year despite the best efforts of the government, he said now the ministry was well on the track of addressing the situation over the coming months in order to provide substantial relief to the domestic and commercial sector consumers besides taking care of the power needs of industrial sector. As a result of the unanimous decisions taken in the National Energy Summit, convened by Prime Minister the nation got relief, adding now the load shedding for industrial sector was almost zero while the agriculture was also getting 10 hours continuous supply. He said when Shaheed Quaid Benazir Bhutto introduced the concept of IPPs during the second term of the PPP government, the decision was severely criticized but the time had proved that her decisions to overcome the energy crisis by establishing IPPs were correct. He said the PPP government in 1994 beat the energy crisis and, Inshallah, the recent government of PPP would again end the energy shortages and give the people a Roshan and Prosperous Pakistan. The Prime Minster Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani and the President Asif Ali Zardari had taken various initiatives to resolve the energy crisis and to strengthen the power sector, he said. He said under the Prime Minsters Power Vision the government was working to meet the future requirements on long term basis. The Minister said that the President had also encouraged the Ministry of Water and Power for initiating work on 32 small dams that would be constructed in all the four provinces. During his recent visit to China an agreement has been signed for construction of 1100 MW Kohala hydro power project, he added. He said the government had decided to change its Energy Mix Policy, and to enhance hydel and alternative energy generation share in the national grid so that the country could produce affordable electricity for consumers in the future. The minister said the work on Neelum-Jhelum Hydel Project of 969 MW was in full swing and efforts were being made to complete it one year before the scheduled time frame while the Khan Khawar hydel project of 72 MW was complete and on test run. He remarked that the government had crossed the most difficult period of power sector deficit in the country and after Attock Power, Atlas Power, Nishat Power and Korangi Combined Cycle Power Plant this plant was the fifth IPP which was being launched within a short span of one and a half year in the country.