Construction work of over Rs 100 billion for raising of the country's second biggest Mangla Dam is in full swing and so far over 54 percent of the construction work on the mega project has been comple

Chief Executive of Peshawar Electricity Supply Company (Pesco) Sakhi Marjan has urged the consumers to conserve electricity in view of the increasing gap between supply and demand in the country. Seeking consumers' co-operation to the company, the Pesco chief said that the company could overcome the current energy crisis only with the help of consumers. He advised them to stop unnecessary and illegal use of electricity to ensure continued and uninterrupted power supply. For this, the consumers were required to follow the proposals of the company so that they could not face any inconvenience, he said, and appealed to people to conserve energy by means of less consumption, especially during the peak hours, ie rom 6.00 pm to 11.00 pm. He said that Pesco was taking all possible measures to overcome the prevailing energy crisis. The company also urged the industrial consumers to extend their co-operation to save at least 25 percent energy and asked them to close the shopping centres before 7.00 pm and switch off the street lights. It also called for switching off the lights of all billboards to save electricity for the domestic consumers, who were also requested to use energy savers and tubelights instead of bulbs and iron their clothes in day time. Copyright Business Recorder, 2008

New Delhi has proposed that India will provide a village in Bangladesh with solar electric supply as part of the energy cooperation initiative in the SAARC region. The Indian High Commission in Dhaka on Sunday sent a letter to the foreign ministry proposing that Delhi wanted to install solar power systems in one of the villages in Bangladesh for electric supply to 300 home-lights and 50 streetlights. The foreign ministry forwarded the letter to the Power Division on Monday, sources in the division said. In the letter, Delhi suggested that Dhaka should send in the names of 2 or 3 villages to choose one from among. A team of experts of India will select the village after visiting the proposed sites. The letter said Delhi had made the proposal to provide one village with solar power in keeping with the decision on energy cooperation made at the 14th SAARC Summit in April 2007. Sources in the Power Division said the Rural Electrification Board was no Monday advised to send in the names of three remote villages, especially in coastal areas, where it would not be possible for the government to supply power from the national grid.

Dao Duy Dang remembers the night in 1963 when the lights came on in Uong Bi. "People were so excited," the 70-year-old tea-shop owner says, recalling the cheers that rang through the northern Vietnamese town after one of the country's first coal-fired power plants began operating. "Their whole lives they had wished for electricity." Be careful what you wish for.