Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday principally approved the construction of solar power projects of 2000 megawatts in the public sector to generate low-cost and environment-friendly electricity. The prime minister, who chaired a meeting to review progress on the installation of 10,000 megawatts solar projects across the country, said it would also reduce country's dependence on power projects running on costly fuels also burdening the foreign exchange reserves. He said that under the project, the agricultural tube wells would be converted to solar power on an urgent basis. The solar power projects would also help overcome the issues related to line losses, power theft, and circular debt.

The prime minister, who was given a detailed briefing on solar projects, told the meeting that the government would give sovereign-guarantee to the companies investing in the solar projects. The meeting was told that an investors conference on solarisation was held on September 14 which was attended by local and international investor companies including from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, China and Qatar, which also expressed interest to invest in the sector. It was told that work on the identification of suitable sites for solar power projects had been started. Such a site near Muzaffargarh has already been identified for the installation of 600MW solar power project.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP