IT is important to note that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has taken a lead over the other provinces by not only formulating the Hydropower Generation Plan to generate hydel power but also by starting work on it. The inauguration of the 36.6MW Dral Khawar Power Project in Bahrain, Swat, on Saturday is the first step in the scheme. The hydropower plant will be the first ever energy project launched by any provincial government in the country since the passage of the historic 18th Amendment to the constitution empowering the provinces to take up their own energy projects. The plan envisages the completion of 24 hydropower projects across the province to produce 2,100MW of electricity over the next 10 years at a cost of Rs330bn. The implementation of the plan should create thousands of new jobs and kick-start economic activities in the province while helping to reduce power cuts. That the formulation of the plan enjoys the support of many political parties represented in the province will, hopefully, ensure its continuity even after the incumbent government is gone.

Other provinces have done little to produce electricity from their own resources to address growing power shortages. For example, the Punjab government that misses no opportunity to take Islamabad to task for increasing electricity shortages has done little on its own to generate power. The budgetary allocation of Rs9bn for initiating energy projects this year has been diverted elsewhere because it politically suits the provincial government. Sindh, too, has not taken any steps of note to utilise the huge Thar coal reserves for power generation, and is yet to come up with an energy policy or plan. Punjab and Sindh must learn from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and follow the example the latter has set in spite of the various problems it has to deal with, including the menace of terrorism.