CDWP clears Rs13.32bn solar scheme for KP merged districts
The Prime Minister's Solar Scheme for Newly Merged Districts now goes to ECNEC for final approval before any money can be released.
The Central Development Working Party has cleared a Rs 13.323 billion scheme to supply off-grid solar electricity to households in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's newly merged districts, and referred it to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council for final approval.
The project, named the Prime Minister's Solar Scheme for Newly Merged Districts, is meant to give households in the target areas solar power systems that run independently of the conventional electricity grid, ProPakistani reported. CDWP clearance is a planning step only; the scheme cannot move to implementation until ECNEC approves it.
The decision was taken at a CDWP meeting chaired by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, which reviewed 14 development projects with a combined estimated cost of Rs 226.48 billion. According to ProPakistani, the solar scheme is one of three major development projects for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the latest batch of federal infrastructure and development plans. The CDWP is the forum that vets projects of this size before they are sent to ECNEC.
The report did not say how many households the scheme is expected to reach, what size of solar systems would be installed, how the units would be procured, or over what period the money would be spent. It also gave no breakdown of the Rs 13.323 billion between equipment, installation and administrative costs.
Clearing at the CDWP does not commit the federal government to releasing the full amount. The cost and scope of projects are open to revision at the ECNEC stage, and the scheme's financing will only become firm once that approval is given.
The newly merged districts, the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas, were brought into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by the 25th Constitutional Amendment in 2018. Electricity supply there has long been thin and unreliable, and successive federal and provincial governments have promised to improve it. Officials have presented off-grid solar as a stopgap where extending transmission lines is slow or expensive.
No date has been announced for the ECNEC meeting that will take up the scheme.
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