US technical team arrives in Pakistan to access energy crisis

Karachi, Aug.23 (ANI): A team of US technical experts is in Pakistan to assess the country's deteriorating energy scenario and to help it to overcome the problem, the Dawn reports.

The team of engineers and financial evaluators will stay in Pakistan for a week and is expected to look into the possibility of setting up rental power plants in the country.

Sources said America's private sector is likely to invest heavily in Pakistan's energy sector to rehabilitate it and bring it back on track.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Pakistan Cabinet has given its approval to a plan for 1500 megawatt rental power plants, and has also asked the federal power ministry to arrange 2,200 megawatts of electricity from 14 companies in order to end the country's power crisis.

Pakistan's Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf told recently that currently the country requires 2,700 megawatts of electricity through rental power plants.

He said that he had also directed the power ministry to seek 200 mmcfd of gas from the petroleum ministry to generate 700MW from the existing system.

The United States, in the recent days, has stressed on resolving Pakistan's energy crisis, as it feels that unless the country's industrial sector ran properly and provided jobs to maximum number of people the youth would there remains a high risk of youths being exploited by the extremists.

During his recent visit, the Special US Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard had also addressed the issue.

Terming the energy crisis in Pakistan as that country's biggest problem, Holbrooke said America is ready to help in this regard, but Islamabad should try to fix the 'tremendous amount of leakage' that exists in the whole system.

"US would help in this regard but the government and people of Pakistan have to take lead," Holbrooke said. (ANI)