KARACHI, Feb 11: President Pervez Musharraf has asked the Karachi Port Trust, Port Qasim Authority, Pakistan Steel Mills and the city and Sindh governments to set up desalination and power generation plants all over the city.

He was speaking at the inauguration of the DHA water desalination and power generation plant and ground-breaking ceremony of Phase-II of the project here on Monday.

Terming the inauguration of the project as an important event, the president asked other organisations to emulate the example and instal plants for generating electricity and providing clean drinking water.

He said this was also a good example of public-private sector cooperation in solving the problems of water and power. President Musharraf said the government had focused on these two areas over the past six to seven years.

He pointed out that Pakistan had a surplus of 4,000MW electricity in the year 2001 and was also surplus in gas. With an average growth rate electricity requirement of the country was considered at that time to be adequate for up to year 2010.

He said that in the year 2001 when he had met then Iranian President Khatemi in Tehran, and the latter proposed the laying of gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan and his reply was that unless India joined that project Pakistan did not require that gas.

Beyond 2002 and 2003, the industrial growth doubled in the country and the economic growth (at about seven per cent) energy requirement enhanced manifold.

President Musharraf said that as regards electricity and gas the government had planned for 2008 and up to December 2009 and went up to 2011 as well as a long-term perspective up to 2016.

Therefore, he added, the government was trying to get the gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan and also electricity from Iran.

He asked the KESC chairman, Mr Abdul Aziz Al-Jomaih, who was present on the occasion, to invest in KESC especially power generation to solve the problem of electricity being faced by the people of Karachi.

He pointed out that 60 per cent work of the Katchi Canal had been completed and the project on its completion in two years would irrigate an area of 730,000 acres in Balochistan.

The president said the raising of Mangla dam by 30 feet would hopefully be completed by June this year.

He said that for potable water, plans were being made to set up filtration plants in every union council. The population of Pakistan sufferd from water-borne diseases and this problem would be solved by providing clean drinking water to the people.

The president said that the DHA plant was cost- effective and had a pay-back period of five to six years.

He announced a bonus of one month’s salary for employees of the DHA Cogeneration Plant.

Earlier, the president, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan, Chief Minister Justice (Retd) Abdul Qadir Halipota and chief of the executive board of DHA, Lt.-Gen Ahsan Azhar Hayat, visited the control room where he tasted the water.

Earlier, the Administrator of DHA, Brig Kamran Aziz Qazi, said the project was the first of its kind in Pakistan, undertaking both desalination and power generation.

He said the project was structured on a commercial basis with the DHA having 26 per cent shares. It had cost DHA nearly $115 million.

Brig Kamran said that the plant has a guaranteed life of 30 years and was capable of producing 90MW of power and three million gallons of water per day.

He also said that the long-awaited development of Phase 8 was under way and was likely to be completed in three to four years.—APP