No end to loadshedding in Pakistan: Kaira

 
Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, while briefing the media on electricity shortfall, said that even if all available resources of Pakistan are applied, we will not be able to put an end to loadshedding.
Kaira was briefing the media along with Minister for Water and Power Ahmad Mukhtar on the 2,000MW electricity shortfall that the country had faced due to a ‘tornado’ in Muzaffargarh a week ago.
“All repairs have been completed,” assured Kaira.
Addressing the issue of loadshedding, Kaira said that there was no “fund and fuel” problem faced by the country in terms of electricity. “We are using all our resources but the demand is rising,” he said.
Attributing the shorftall to previous governments, Kaira said that the real cause of loadshedding was that no electricity projects had been initiated between 1996 and 2008, adding that since 2007, there has been an annual increase of 1,600MW in electricity demand.
Kaira, however added that Pakistan faced little loadshedding compared to other South-East Asian countries. He stated that these countries were facing a shortfall of around 4,000MW.
Opposition should change slogan
Criticising the opposition for their “Jaag Punjab Jaag” slogan, Kaira said that instead of inciting hatred and resentment among the masses against the government, the opposition should motiviate the country to work with the government through this difficult time.
“They should chant ‘Jaag Pakistan Jaag’,” said Kaira, adding that the current slogan was “activating the nation’s enemies in all other provinces”.
Kaira reiterated that loadshedding was, despite popular belief, being shared equally among the provinces.
Iran pipeline
“The belief that electricity is uselessly lying around in Iran and we are not taking it is wrong,” said Kaira, speaking on the Iran pipeline issue.
“Iran does not have surplus electricity, they have to put a pipeline near Pakistan’s border,” he said.
“We have to lay a 300km-long line, they have to install a power house of around 500 to 800MW and that will give us electricity,” he added.
“We have made that agreement (with Iran) despite immense international pressure,” said Kaira adding that those who “engaged in sloganeering and propaganda would just cave in to any such pressure”.
“It is just our government (that perseveres),” he added.
Stating the the party never compromised on the nuclear assets issue, Kaira said that they were threatened of being made into a “horrific example”.
“Zulfiar Ali Bhutto became that “horrific example” but we did not leave the path,” Kaira said.
“Benazir Bhutto was told not to make the atomic power delivery system of Pakistan, but we made it,” he added.
“Even today, there were a lot of hurdles in the way of our agreement with Iran but we made the agreement,” he said, adding, “It requires billions of dollars and international cooperation is required to get that.”
“Those who continue their sloganeering should know that international forums don’t give money so easily,” he said.

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Monster power cut knocks out half of India's power

 
India’s northern and eastern power grids collapsed on Tuesday, blacking out half the country and affecting hundreds of millions of people in the second day of electricity chaos.
“We are busy with the revival right now… Both the Northern and Eastern grids have collapsed. Please allow us to address the problem,” VK Agrawal, the general manager of the northern grid, told AFP.
In New Delhi, the metro train system came to a standstill and many traffic lights were out for the second day in a row after the northern grid failed on Monday in the worst power outage in a decade.
“Drivers of all the metro trains have been asked to stop at the stations. No passengers will be allowed in the metro station until power is restored,” a metro spokeswoman told AFP.
About 400 trains were affected by the power outage, a spokesman for the railways told AFP.
In the east, the city of Kolkata was without power as were most parts of the surrounding state of West Bengal, an official at the West Bengal State Electricity Supply Corp, B Mukherjee, confirmed to AFP.
The eastern grid covers five states including West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Sikkim, and Orissa.
“This is a big crisis. We are working to restore power. Many states overdraw power and this has caused a complete collapse in eastern and northern India,” said a senior official at the ministry of power in New Delhi.
On Monday, the northern grid collapsed for six hours shortly after 2:00 am (2030 GMT Sunday), causing travel chaos and widespread inconvenience in nine states including the capital New Delhi.
Major hospitals and airports in the region were able to function normally on emergency back-up power, but train services were severely disrupted.
Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde called it a “failure” but he also boasted that India had been quick to restore power, unlike the United States which took days to restore electricity a 2003 blackout on its eastern seaboard.
He and the rest of the government woke up Tuesday to a barrage of calls for urgent reform of the power sector.
Leading the charge were business lobby groups who said Monday’s outage – the worst to hit the country in a decade – underlined the government’s inability to address India’s perennial electricity shortfall.
“The increasing gap between electricity supply and demand has long been a matter of concern,” said Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of the Confederation of Indian Industry.
The CII, Banerjee said, has “consistently highlighted” the need for urgent steps to improve supplies of coal to thermal power plants and reforming state distribution utilities.
“This latest outage is just an urgent reminder for addressing these issues as a priority,” he added.

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