Three more villages in Laspur light up through community initiatives

Talking to ChitralToday, Nigahban Shah, the president of the Shandur Utility Company, said work on the hydropower project on Raman Gol was launched on May 5, 2011, and completed at a cost of Rs100 million. He said an amount of Rs60 million was provided by the Swiss Bank through the AKRS, Rs30 million interest-free loan by the American Development Bank which would be returned in five years while Rs10 million were pooled in by the 1,032 members of the local community at the rate of about Rs9,000 each. Expressing his joy and happiness over the successful completion of the project, he said, “I am now talking to you sitting under the new electricity provided to our houses today.” Mr Shah said since 2011 when the work on the project as started, the officials of the donor agencies continued visiting the site and conducted six-monthly audit of the project and expressed their happiness over the successful collaboration and utilization of the funds. He said the donors agencies had promised to provide five steel poles for the main line while the link lines were to be installed on wooden poles. But after the successful completion of the project, the donors were so happy that they announced to give additional 950 steel poles for the community. He said that now the three villages had surplus electricity and the residents were very happy over the development. He also thanked the donor agencies and the AKRSP for assisting the area people in establishing the powerhouse to have the facility of round-the-clock electricity. He said earlier the villages had small powerhouses which were not enough to meet the requirements of the consumers.]]>