The government is adopting a three-year roadmap for development of the country's power sector shortly, aiming to ease the prevailing electricity crisis. "Process is on to give its proposed short-term strategies a final shape with a view to bringing major reforms in the country's power sector," an official source said. The short-term plans aim to raise the country's electricity generation capacity by at least 1400 megawatt (MW) by the next three years. Under the initiative, top officials of the Power Division, representatives from all the power sector entities and other stakeholders will meet on May 31 next to discuss the proposed roadmap. The meeting is also expected to devise strategies for successful implementation of the reform initiative, officials said, adding the Power Division has already prepared a draft 'power sector roadmap'. The Power Division is arranging the meeting to seek suggestions and opinions on the proposed roadmap from the stakeholders to ensure its greater acceptance, an official said. According to officials, corporatisation of the state-owned power units, enhancement of power generation and capacities, reduction of the present system loss in power distribution and improvement of managerial efficiencies of the state-owned power entities are the key features of the short-term policy. Other important components of the proposed roadmap include development of business and financial plans, making the state-owned power generation units commercially viable and a time-bound action plan for promotion of power sector, according to officials. Elaborating some of the major components, an official said corporatisation of the existing power stations would be done either individually or on a cluster basis under the roadmap. Extra efforts will also be made so that the emerging entities become commercially sound, the official said, adding all existing power stations in the public sector will be made into profitable concerns. Besides, necessary policy measures have to be taken for accelerating the pace of development of the country's power sector, according to an official. Officials, however, said the government is adopting the short-term reform programme, aiming to achieve its ongoing long-term development goals for the power sector. The government has already chalked out a 20-year power development plan to bring the vast majority of the country's population under the coverage of electricity through raising the power generation capacity by, at least, 12,000 MW by the year 2020. Responding to a query, the official said after finalising the short-term roadmap, the government would seek financial support from its development partners/donors for the implementation of its reforms programme.
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