PESHAWAR     -      The Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) and Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) have agreed to separate the Hayatabad Industrial Estate from Tribal Electric Supply Company (TESCO) feeder to overcome with the power theft and frequent tripping issues in industrial estate, and exempted industrial estate Kohat Road from loadshedding.

The decision was taken in a meeting of the SCCI President Maqsood Anwar and PESCO Chief Executive, Engr Amjad Khan here at Chamber House on Saturday.

Besides SCCI senior vice president, Shahid Hussain, former presidents, Faiz Muhammad, Riaz Arshad, Zahid Shinwari, Malik Niaz Ahmad, Fuad Ishaq, and Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, members of the executive committee, Small Industrial Estate Kohat Road Peshawar president, Waheed Awan, PESCO officials, and industrialists were present in the meeting.

Maqsood, while speaking on the occasion, said that Shakas – a vicinity of district Khyber is proximity to Hayatabad Industrial Estate, because of which difficulties are being faced in smooth power supply to industrial units there as power theft and tripping is routine in the area. He urged PESCO to take action against electricity theft and corrupt officials to ensure smooth power supply and resolve tripping issue, as well as make Pesco a profit making power distribution company.

SCCI chief demanded to exempt Small Industrial Estate Kohat Road Peshawar from electricity loadshedding by following decision of federal government in this regard. He urged Pesco to take practical measures to resolve overbilling, low voltage, fault in power transformers due to overload, tripping and power consumers’ issues.

Later, PESCO chief Engr Amjad, while responding to complaints of business community, said that Wapda had planned to install a new power feeder along with the Industrial Estate Kohat Road Peshawar, which would minimize load on existing electricity feeder. He also announced to exempt the Small Industrial Estate Kohat Road Peshawar from loadshedding.

PESCO chief asked the business community to identify 80 to 90 per cent commercial areas in order to install separate feeders for commercial consumers there. In this regard, he informed that work on Ring Road (GT Road- Charsadda Road section) is in full swing, through which electricity supply will be ensured to commercial plazas, CNG stations, petrol pumps, hospitals and educational institutional from an independent commercial feeder.

He said the Pesco has adopted ‘zero-tolerance’ policy against corruption as three XENs and 11 others officers have been suspended over alleged corruption charges, while 16 officers had so far terminated in this regard. He said the recovery ratio from industrial and commercial consumers is 100 per cent, so PESCO will ensure uninterrupted power supply to them, he added. He also assured to replace all outdated power cables from bazaars, shopping markets and other business hubs.

He informed that government had sanctioned 3000 new positions in PESCO, but it was insufficient to overcome the increasing deficiency. He also informed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will produce additional 3000 megawatts electricity by 2025 and include it into the system.