Pakistan minister stresses timely completion of key power projects

Pakistan’s planning minister has said that critical projects in the power and hydel energy sectors must be completed on time and sought a realistic three-year execution framework and financial requirements from the power ministry.

Ahsan Iqbal, on Monday, chaired a high-level meeting to review power projects built under Pakistan’s federal development plan called the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP).

The minister directed the power ministry to prioritize projects that are near-completion projects and submit cost requirements to ensure the timely completion of these projects.

The minister reviewed 37 power sector projects with a combined approved cost of PKR 1.7 trillion. Of this, PKR 1.1 trillion had been spent up to June, while throw-forward stood at PKR 492.4 billion. The allocation for 2025-26 is PKR 104.7 billion, while an additional demand of around PKR 175 billion was indicated during the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

Iqbal said periodic reviews were essential to ensure that scarce public resources were aligned with national priorities, that cost overruns and implementation delays were identified early.

He directed the Power Division to prepare a project-wise break-up of critical schemes and submit a yearly financing and execution plan for the next three years for each project.

A disciplined three-year rolling plan, he said, would help the government to avoid the accumulation of incomplete projects, contain fiscal pressures, and ensure public investments into tangible improvements in energy security and economic growth.

He further instructed that near-completion projects be prioritized so that sunk investments could be converted into operational assets at the earliest.

“The objective is to reduce the throw-forward and complete priority projects within defined timelines,” the minister said, adding that delays not only escalate costs but also defer the economic benefits of infrastructure, including improved energy availability, industrial productivity, and investor confidence.

Among the key power sector projects reviewed were the two 660MW coal-fired power plant at Jamshoro (PKR 177 billion ), the Power Distribution Enhancement Investment Program (Tranche-I) Advanced Metering Infrastructure project (PKR 16.9 billion), the Electricity Distribution Efficiency Improvement Projects in MEPCO (PKR 10.2 billion) and HESCO (PKR 8.1 billion), the 500kV Matiari-Moro-Rahim Yar Khan transmission line (PKR 188.5 billion), and another Electricity Distribution Efficiency Improvement project costing PKR 11.7 billion.

Other hydel and transmission-related projects that were reviewed included the Dasu transmission lines, Ghazi-Barotha Hydropower Project, the upgradation and extension of NTDC’s telecommunications and SCADA system at the National Power Control Centre, and the evacuation of power from the 2,160MW Dasu Hydropower Project (Stage-I).

The minister directed the secretaries of planning, finance, economic affairs, power and water resources ministries to identify financial, technical, or administrative bottlenecks and resolve them on a fast-track basis.

The meeting concluded with instructions to finalize a list of the most critical projects in order of priority for the next three years and work out the bare minimum annual PSDP requirements needed to complete them within stipulated timelines.