TIMERGARA, Aug 29: Provincial Senior Minister Sirajul Haq announced on Thursday that work on two hydel power plants with combined generation capacity of 181 megawatts would soon be started in Dir as the federal government had approved the projects on the request of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Speaking at a public gathering at Samar Bagh, Lower Dir, he said that the two hydel power stations would be established at Sharmai and Koto in Lower Dir. He said that Rs35.5 billion would be spent on the construction of Sharmal hydel power station, which would produce 150 megawatts of electricity.

He said that another Rs8.31 billion would be spent on the Koto hydropower station that would produce 31 megawatt of electricity. The minister said that people of Malakand division had been facing acute shortage of electricity and completion of these projects would end power crisis in the region.

`People here will get cheap and uninterrupted electricity after completion of these projects,` Mr Haq told the gathering. He said that it was a longstanding demand of the people of Malakand.