‘Govt has decided to solarize public buildings by April 2023’: PM

Islamabad: The Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif Tuesday said as a first step of solarization project, government had decided to solarize all public buildings of federal ministries and divisions across the country by April next year, posting a series of tweets to make the announcement.

He said: “This revolutionary step will help reduce energy import bill and generate cheap and environment-friendly electricity”.

The Prime Minister stated that in his meeting with federal secretaries, he impressed upon them the need for proactive leadership to complete solarization of public buildings, adding that this whole process will be marked by transparency, pre-qualification and third party audit.

Shehbaz Sharif further stated: “Reliance on imported energy, which is about 27 billion dollars annually, is unsustainable”.

The premier concluded that the government's focus on leveraging the indigenous and renewable sources of electricity will make the country self-reliant in terms of energy security and provide massive relief to the common man.

As a first step of solarisation project, Government has decided to solarise all public buildings of Federal Ministries & Divisions across the country by April 2023. This revolutionary step will help reduce energy import bill & generate cheap & environment-friendly electricity 1/3

— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) December 27, 2022

On the other hand, speaking to a conference in Islamabad on solar power, Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif said government has started work on 10,000 megawatts solar power projects to increase energy mix and reduce import bill.

He stated: “The solarization will not only reduce the import bill of costly fuel but also help generate low-cost and environment-friendly electricity”.

The Prime Minister added that necessary steps are being taken to promote the use of solar energy at the private level while maximum government buildings in the country will be converted to solar power by April next year.

Sharif further stated: “Due to Russia-Ukraine war fuel prices increased at a peak level,” resultantly, our circular debt also increased to 2.5 trillion rupees which is four times higher than our federal budget, he added.

The premier said keeping in view the high prices of fuel and our economic issue, switching to solar energy is indispensable to save foreign exchange.

Commenting on International Monetary Fund (IMF) program, he said we are committed to complete the IMF program.