Swat: Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan has officially inaugurated the Dral Khawar Hydro power station located at Bahrain in district swat about 185 Km from Peshawer. This Project will annually generate 154GWh energy adding around 1.2 Billion for the provincial exchequer.
Minister of State for Communication Murad Saeed, Adviser to Chief Minister on Energy, members of national and provincial assembly including Dr Haider Ali, Salim-ur-Rehman, Fazal Hakim Khan, Mian Sharafat Ali, Commissioner Malakand Syed Zaheer-ul-Islam, Secretary Energy, MD PEDO, Pakistani and Chinese officials attended the ceremony.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony, the CM cautioned against water crisis being faced by the whole country, and said the region had no scarcity of water just lack of resources for proper storage and use of the surface water adding that only Swat had the potential to produce thousands of megawatts of electricity. He reminded that Dral Khawar project was initiated from the province’s own resources and finished right on schedule. He informed the ceremony that KP government has a detailed plan for the conservation and utilization of water for agricultural as well as energy requirements of the region.
“Some of the projects, which are significant in nature, included 84MW Mataltan hydro power project and 110MW Gabral Kalam hydro project. These projects on completion would provide cheap electricity to the backward areas of the region and load-shedding would become the history,” he added.
Mahmood Khan further assured “we would translate into reality the agriculture sector development, small and medium enterprises and industrialization along with provision of electricity to all within the region. These water resources would also be used for the promotion of tourism. Tourism would be promoted as an Industry because the scenic beauty of Swat, Malakand and Hazara have all the prerequisites to attract tourists.”
