Pakistan’s Minister of State for Water and Power, Abid Sher Ali, has promised to focus on upgrading the country’s power infrastructure amid frustration over loadshedding measures. 

  Ali made the comments at an inauguration ceremony for the National Transmission and Despatch Company’s new 30km-long 500 kV transmission line and 500 kV DG Khan substation, which was built at a cost of $73.41 million.

  The new project will help to improve the area’s transmission capacity, and therefore the network’s reliability, alongside acting as bridge between Punjab and Balochistan regions, said Ali at the ceremony according to The Nation.

  It is one of several power projects in the country intended to combat the loadshedding programme, which cuts power off in rolling blackouts for between ten and sixteen hours per day, depending on the region.
  While some areas remain unaffected by the blackouts, it causes great inconvenience in many parts of Pakistan, due to a 10,000 megawatt power capacity deficit.