Electricity Crisis - Pakistan to Import Electricity from India:

This is in continuation of my last article on the subject. As we all know Pakistan for the last few years has been facing electricity shortage and load shedding has been adopted as a measure to address the situation. The problem is getting out of hand with every passing year and government is trying to address the matter with whatever resources it has at her disposal. Some projects are being planned including the construction of new dams to generate electricity. However these are long term solutions and people need short term and quick solution so that they can benefit from one of the very basic needs of modern times.

One of the short term solutions is to look for source from where readily available electricity can be procured and made available to the people. Pakistan has been looking for this option and has begun negotiations with her neighbors for procuring electricity. One of our neighboring countries India has offered to sell electricity to Pakistan and the government is seriously looking into this option. Already negotiations have been held between the two countries and progress is being made. India shall need to develop transmission line to the border with Pakistan from where Pakistan shall build her own transmission line. According to latest press reports Pakistan and India have agreed to invest to develop the transmission lines on their sides of the border. Although negotiations on the price are continuing and according to press reports moving forward still it shall take some time before the electricity is imported due to lengthy and sensitive process of legal and technical issues related to the project. However it seems that this approach if concluded quickly is a good option in the short term till our own projects are completed.

One problem is the sensitive nature of relations between the two countries and whenever an incident happens either in India or Pakistan relations become sour and all progress made is wasted. Then officials from both side of the country have to wait for the time till relations normalize and then began all over again. One can only hope that such a situation does not arise and relations remain normal.

Let us hope that the government is aware of the sensitive nature of the problem and shall conclude the negotiations quickly to provide relief to the people of the country.