LAHORE: The Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) has told the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) that removal of high voltage power transmission lines from the ‘existing right of way’ and shifting them to other places is not possible since it costs huge money to do so.

       The company said this in a reply to Nepra after a complainant approached it, demanding removal of the lines crossing over his and others’ houses in a locality of Lahore.

       “It is absolutely impossible for us to remove the lines passing through their own right of way unlawfully occupied allegedly by the people at grade (on ground). How can we do this since it is our right of way and not the people occupying this unlawfully?” Lesco Chief Engineer Zafar Iqbal told Dawn on Tuesday.

       “We have told this to the regulator. However, we can do this if the complainants pledge to bear expenses which they cannot afford definitely,” he added.

       Lesco had earlier issued notices to 650 people last week for ‘unlawfully’ constructing houses and the buildings for various uses under the high voltage lines emanating from the grid stations for power distribution to consumers.

       The company issued notices to the people in the areas of Lahore, Kasur, Sheikhupura, Nankana and Okara, keeping in view various fatal/non-fatal incidents of electrocution being reported frequently.

       The notices issued by the company are not limited to construction of houses/buildings under the lines but to those as well who had encroached upon the land either by extending their buildings’ shades close to wires passing on the front or taking their structures’ height to a level close to the wires.

       According to official sources, the land grabbers managed to sell the land, acquired by the government in the past for laying transmission lines, to the people after carving out plots on the right of way that is supposed to be left empty because of passing of the lines/wires.

       Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2022