ISLAMABAD: More than 100 schools in Pakistani federal capital Islamabad’s rural areas will be going solar in a bid to conserve electricity.
The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration is collaborating with oil companies doing exploratory work in and around Islamabad and has initiated a project to install solar systems in rural schools, said Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Amir Ali Ahmed.
The initiative was taken following a recent judgment by the Supreme Court in which oil and gas companies were directed to spend 10 percent of royalties on areas where reserves are being explored, said Ahmed.
The ICT administration will work with two companies exploring oil reserves in the city’s outskirts - the state-run Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) and MOL, a Hungarian oil and gas company.
An ICT official said the 10 per cent royalty will be spent on schools in the rural areas as they are often the most neglected and more so because that is the area where the exploration is taking place.
“The basic objective is to save energy and to educate students and teachers about the usefulness of solar power,” Ahmed said yesterday.
He further said the biggest advantage of the project is to curtail electricity costs in schools by powering fans and lights through solar energy.
Ahmed stated that the administration held meetings with officials of OGDCL and MOL in the first week of October and finalised the project.
Internews
