The coordinator for non-military United States assistance to Pakistan, Robin Raphel, has said the Obama administration is playing the role of a catalyst to help Pakistan cope with its ongoing energy crisis.
Raphel said that Washington contributing an initial amount to kickstart development work on the proposed Diamer-Bhasha Dam in the Northern Areas of Pakistan.
The Daily Times further quoted her as saying that her country was also spending millions of dollars to aid Pakistan's capacity building through renovation and repair of Tarbela and other dams that would add over 500MW to the national grid.
"There is no short-term solution to end the gap between electricity consumption and generation, which was currently around 5,000MW," Raphel said.
"In the first phase of the series of US-funded benefits, three thermal power plants are being renovated to increase their efficiency. This would take 18 to 24 months and would be would be completed by the mid or end of year 2012," she added. ANI
