$256.85 Million WB loan for electricity

The World Bank has announced to grant aid $256.85 million to Pakistan for meeting the electricity outrage here on Wednesday. The concerned authorities of The World Bank have made the approval of the grant, sources said while the aid would be utilized to over come the bad-patches in the distribution and power transmission network.

The Director for Pakistan World Bank Yusupha Crookes estimates that Pakistan’s electricity system lacks about 2,000 megawatts to cover peak demand. The country’s transmission and distribution power networks are over-loaded and lack proper investment, with high technical and commercial losses. Pakistan has observed 40 percent increase in electric power demand in the last five years.

“While Pakistan has added about 1 million new, mainly household, electricity connections each year, about a quarter of its population still has no access to electricity, and the quality of service has been deteriorating sharply, ” said Yusupha Crookes, World Bank country director for Pakistan. “This has an adverse impact on both the normal conduct of social and economic activity and the delivery of social services.”

The so-called Electricity Distribution and Transmission Improvement project aims to improve distribution and transmission networks to meet increasing demand for electricity and to strengthen capacity of electricity companies.