Syed M. Hussain Gardezi
The ill-fated small hydro power projects upto 50 MW’s are being refused to be implemented through private sector in AJ&K. Despite the fact that under 2015 Power Policy all codel formalities were completed, the few projects with the Letter of Intent (LOI) namely Jhing-II Hydro Power, Jagran-III Hydro Power, Harighel Hydro Power &Luat Hydro Power are declined to be entertained by the federal government.
The facilitation agreement signed between GOAJK and PPIB, Ministry of Energy (Power Div.) in 2017 mandates PPIB to issue Letter of Support (LOS) to AJK based private hydro power projects that are being recommended by GOAJK. The LOS by PPIB enables the provision of standardized security documents (Energy Purchase Agreement & Implementation Agreement) to the project developers, which are necessary required by lenders for debt financing.
Under the aforesaid facilitation agreement, PPIB in 2019 issued Letter of Support (LOS) to two projects i.e. Riali Hydro &Kathai Hydro. Riali Hydro is much in advance stage and Kathai Hydro is in progress. Out of these two projects, Riali – II Hydro Power Project has completed more than 70% of civil works at site and the company has invested about 2.8 billion rupees. NEPRA has issued the tariff which was @ 8 Rs/kWh and Energy Purchase Agreement (EPA) was signed with CPPA-G in April, 2020, but due to the non-cooperation /non-seriousness of Ministry of Energy (MOE) especially the sitting Secretary Mr. Rashid Mahmood Langrial, the approval of security documents are still pending. The Secretary fears that NAB will get hold of him if he approves the summary relating to Security Documents for the small hydro power projects. So in order to avoid NAB, he has refused to send the Summary to ECC for approval. This is an unfortunate country for foreign and local investors who are badly trapped through the different policies of GOP and now the investors are begging & knocking the different doors to avail their sincere attention but unfortunately nobody pay any heed or attention to the genuine investors whose investment is in doldrums and visibly dooming at mountainous area of AJ&K. The sponsors of Riali-II had written many letters addressing to the Chief of Army Staff / Prime Minister of Pakistan including the Secretary (Power Division) & SIFC with zero response. The sponsors of small hydel’s had high hopes that due to the presence of Army in SIFC, their genuine issues will be taken up seriously and stern action will be taken against those bureaucrats who are responsible indiscouraging the investment in green energy. The hydro power energy is still the cheapest from all other sources and the life of hydro power project is above 100 years. These projects help in boosting up the local economy and employment but unfortunately the decision makers in the Power Division are presumably acting as an agent of those who benefits from selling expensive fuel to the country. The ill-fated projects are truly in wait to someone who is a patriot and who may be able to rescue the investment and who encourage the foreign & local investors to invest in hydro power projects. In conclusion, it is recommended that SIFC shall take Riali-II as a model case to figure out the genuine issues facing by the investors.
The case file of Riali-II shall immediately by called upon by SIFC and a competent officer shall be deputed with action oriented task provided SIFC is mandated to resolve and implement the project in the best interest of the country.
