Lawi power project may take years to complete
GH Farooqui
CHITRAL: Lawi power project, which was launched in 2016 and supposed to be completed in December 2021, is not even half ready due to erratic funding by the KP government.
At the current pace of work at the site, the 69 megawatt power project may take five to six more years for completion.
A visit to the site by ChitralToday correspondent showed the work was progressing at a snail’s pace and workers were complaining of not being paid their wages for months.
Instead of its original deadline of Dec 2021, the project may linger for five to six more years if the government continued its lack of interest to get it ready without any further delay.
Khaista Khan from Swat said he had been working at the site as a sub-contractor of the main contractor Sarwar and Company, for two years and his 20 labourers are not being wages as Rs2 million dues are yet to be paid to him.
Shirin Amin, a labourer, said he worked for three months at the site and left it a month back. He is visiting the site almost every day to get his Rs80,000 but no one is ready to pay him his wages.
Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (PEDO) project director Falak Taj, who was visited the site, claimed that Rs1.5 billion had been paid to the Sarwar and Company in advance. The company should clear the dues of sub-contractors after inspecting their work, he added.