Businessmen have welcomed the finalization of $7.5 billion Pak-Iran gas pipeline project according to which Iran will start supplying gas to Pakistan from 2014.
 
Speaking in a meeting at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI), it was hoped that the completion of this project will greatly help in overcoming country’s power problems and improving energy supply, particularly to manufacturing and industrial sectors.
 
Chairing the meeting, Mr.Zahid Maqbool, President, ICCI termed the finalization of project a landmark achievement as it will not only contribute effectively in averting Pakistan’s growing energy crisis, it will also strengthen relations between the two countries.

He said initially the project cost was estimated at US$ 4-billion, but due to unnecessary delay, its cost has now gone up to US$ 7.5 billion. He said that after finalizing gas project, both countries should now focus on constructing legs of their respective pipelines to make it operational on time to avoid further cost overruns.
 
He said that gas suspension, particularly to textile industry has immensely damaged the productivity of this sector while all vital sectors of the economy including agriculture, large scale industries, SMEs and international trade have suffered due to power shortage. However, he hoped that gas supply from Iran will mitigate energy woes of business & industry and people at large.
 
He said country’s population is annually increasing at about 2 per cent while demand for electricity is growing by about 8-9 per cent per annum but supply is at a much lower rate giving rise to mounting energy back log. He said according some estimates, around 67 per cent of our population is still living in darkness even in this modern era.

Businessmen said government should also utilize all viable energy sources including coal and renewable to meet the rising energy needs. They said Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has already said in a statement that Pakistan has immense potential of renewable energy sources including 350,000 MW of Wind Power potential alone.
 
They said all possible efforts should be made to exploit all available energy sources. They also demanded for developing a mechanism of monitoring of line losses and power theft to avoid energy wastage. They said that globally, the standard transmission and distribution losses are less than 10 per cent of the total production while in case of Pakistan, it is 35 and even 42 per cent in some areas, which needs to be brought down.