HYDERABAD, June 28: Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Khan Jatoi said on Thursday that the government had signed agreements over last three years for the establishment of about eight to ten power generation plants in the country to help overcome power crisis.

The minister told journalists at Wapda Colony Rest House on Thursday that work on the construction of three power generation plants had already started. About 15 private sector companies, too, had submitted bank guarantees for setting up hydel power plants and their construction would hopefully start next year, he said.

The plants when completed would surely fulfil the increasing needs of electricity, which would not only help speed up the process of development in different sectors but would also overcome consumers’ demands, he said.

He advised people not to misuse electricity by unnecessarily illuminating up marriage halls and implement the national conservation policy in letter and spirit to save available electricity for the country’s development.

Detailing his ministry’s performance Mr Jatoi said that the ministry had provided power to 19,000 tube-wells last year and targeted to supply power to the same number of tube-wells this year also.

About 17,000 villages of the country had been electrified and 1.5 million consumers were being added each year, which had naturally increased demand for more power, said the minister.

He said that the thunderstorms and heavy rain had caused severe damages to many installations of Hesco and the company was busy repairing them across the province.

With the help of World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, the ministry had prepared a comprehensive strategy to eliminate kunda culture and regularise all the illegal connections, which were a major cause of line losses, he said and added that 70,000 illegal connections had so far been regularised over last two years.

Appreciating the performance of taskforce and vigilance committees the minister said that they succeeded in recovering Rs350 million from the defaulters and illegal connections holders.

Besides, the ministry was establishing new grid stations and work on installation of more transformers in grid stations and laying of transmission lines was also in progress, he said.

In a meeting with Hesco officers, the minister said that decision had been made to declare Tharparkar, Jacobabad and Khairpur districts as pilot districts where the operation and construction unit of the company would make work jointly to improve power supply system by re-erecting the fallen poles and wires and maintaining overloaded transformers.

Earlier, Mr Jatoi met with State Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock Development Muhammad Ali Malkani, MNA Ayaz Shah Sheerazi, MNA Dr. Ghulam Ali Samijo, MNA Liaquat Marri, MNA Arbab Zakaullah and MNA Khuda Bux Nizamani and sought information about losses caused by cyclone and heavy rain in their respective areas.—APP