Pakistan: Talented brothers build hydel power plant on stream

Fed up with the continued power outages, two talented brothers in Banjot area constructed a power generation plant on a mountain stream. Talking to The News, Inayatullah and Hidayatullah, said that the loadshedding in Swat valley had affected businesses and domestic consumers. “We knew that the problem in our area could be resolved by properly utilising the water resources. We decided to install power generation plant on a mountain stream on our land in Banjot in Manglawar near Mingora,” Inayatullah said. They said they sold all their valuables and purchased machinery for the power plant, which was producing one megawatt electricity. The electricity generated from the plant is provided to all the domestic consumers and small industrial units in the area, they said. “This might be the only place in the country now where consumers are getting 24-hour power supply,” Hidayatullah said. He claimed they could provide electricity to the entire Mingora town if they were provided 500 KV transformer. They said the hydel-power produced in such a way would be cheap and pollution-free. Many tailors in Swat were trying to rents shops in the locality to meet the customers’ demand in time.