Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif Inaugurates Complete Functioning Of 1180 Bhikki Power Plant

Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday inaugurated the complete functioning of the 1180 Bhikki power plant

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th May, 2018 ) :Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday inaugurated the complete functioning of the 1180 Bhikki power plant. He expressed his pleasure over the complete functioning of the project.

Speaking on the occasion, he said today is the historic day when 1180 MW of electricity is being added to the national grid from the Bhikki power plant, which is the modern plant running on gas.

It has produced 3.1 billion units of electricity since March 2017, adding the project has been completed after transparent tendering and an amount of Rs 39 billion has been saved from this project.

Engineering, Procurement and Constructon (EPC) cost of the Bhikki power plant is 466 Dollar per kilo watt. It is the lowest cost gas-run power plant. Its record efficiency is 61.59 per cent. Addressing the ceremony held in connection with the complete functioning of the Bhikki power plant, Shehbaz Sharif said load shedding is being eliminated with the efforts of the PML-N government and 10,000 MW of electricity is being generated from the power plants installed by the PML-N government after the investment of the billions of rupees.

The CM said Federal and Punjab governments had installed power projects from their own resources apart from CPEC. Bhilkki, Haveli Bahadur Shah and Baloki are the gas-run power plants which are producing 3600MW of electricity.

All projects have been completed with top speed and transparency. Sahiwal coal power plant and Port Qasim coal power plants are producing 2700MW of electricity, he informed. Neelum-Jhelum project was running on snail's movement for the last 20 years and first phase of this project has been completed with the efforts of the government of PML-N, he added.

The phase of Tarbela 4 has also been completed. Similarly, 400MW solar power plant has been completed in Bahawalpur and all projects have been completed transparently at the fast pace, he said. He said the gas-run projects installed during the governments of Musharraf and Zardari has been completed by our government at the half cost.

Eight years ago Guddu power plant was installed at the cost of eight lakh and 36 thousands Dollars per MW, while Bhikki power has been installed at the cost of 466,000 dollar per MW, he said. Billions of rupees have been saved in all projects.

Consumers are getting cheap electricity due to these projects. While Zardari pushed the country to darkness of load shedding, did huge corruption in power projects and now he is giving sermons against corruption.

He said all gas run power projects installed by Musharraf and Zardari governments were installed at the double cost and their performance was low. The performance turbines installed during their governments was 50, 52 and 54 per cent while performance of Bhikki power plant is 61.50 per cent, the performance of Haveli Bahadur Shah and Baloki is 62.

50 per cent. Modern machines have been used in these projects. The Punjab government is installing another power plant of 1250MW capacity in Haveli Bahadur Shah and work in continuing on the project day and night.

He said when efforts to overcome load shedding started under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif then sit-in started and first year was wasted due to sit-ins. Sit-in caused huge loss to the national economy and delayed power projects.

The visit of Chinese president was also delayed due to sit-in and it was a crime and the people will never forgive them. All power projects would have been completed much earlier, had sit-in not started.

The Khan Sahib has not paid attention to produce electricity in KPK where there are rivers, falls and springs. In an interview to a journalist, Khan Sahib had claimed that he will not only make KPK self-sufficient in electricity while he will produce electricity for whole of Pakistan.

During five years Khan Sahib installed a project of 80MW, while the previous government had installed a 74MW project and it was shut and it is still shut and in this way KPK has produced minus six MW.

Those who tell lies and make baseless claims have no right to lead. He said the centre represents all four units and it has responsibility to install power projects. However, Punjab government has installed projects from its own resources and it was not our responsibility.

Whole of Pakistan is benefitting projects of the Punjab government. He said Sindh government of Zardari had installed a power plant in Nooriabad which has not been able to produce electricity to its capacity and this project is producing 5 to 10 MW.

The CM said the PML-N government had completed 10,000MW power projects in the country in the record short time and the country has no example of this efficiency. All projects are best example of transparency and speed.

He said he congratulates Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi for the completion of all power projects. He said the government of PML-N served the nation and it will continue doing it in the future.