5 flood-hit villages in Chitral electrified

CHITRAL: The supply of electricity to five villages in flood-hit Golen valley was inaugurated on Wednesday.

Deputy Commissioner Lower Chitral Naveed Ahmad inaugurated the project at a function in Golen Payeen village, which had been hit by the Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (Glof) in August this year.

The Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) had sanctioned Rs40 million from its hydel funds to execute the project. Eight poles, three transformers and electricity supply lines were laid over an area stretching over five kilometres to benefit 250 households.

The government has set up a 108 megawatts power house in Golen valley, which supplies electricity to the national grid and Chitral town and its neighbourhood.

However, the people of Golen do not benefit from this modern day necessity because the local system of Wapda has no such provision.

Chief Executive Officer SRSP Masoodul Mulk recalled that a two megawatts powerhouse had been set up in Golen in 2016 which supplied four million units of electricity to the town through Pesco.

He said that despite collecting the bills, the Pesco and Pedo had not paid the nominal amount due to SRSP for the electricity used.

The CEO said that the excess electricity in the valley would be supplied to commercial units

and surpluses would

be used for the technical sustainability of the

project and any surplus after that would be utilised for social development under the guidance of its board.

The CEO thanked the provincial government for building capacity of the organisation to enable it to become a flexible and responsive for the communities and deliver development programmes from South Waziristan to Chitral.

The deputy commissioner lauded the response of SRSP, adding that in August after the floods he had asked the organisation to assist in the recovery process and was delighted to see how well it had done.