Report: Committee to Approve Final Electricity Plan Today

A ministerial panel tasked with studying a plan to solve the country’s chronic electricity crisis, will reportedly complete the final version of its report on Thursday to be submitted to Cabinet on Friday, al-Joumhouria daily reported.

Source of the Grand Serail told the daily that the panel finalized the proposed amendments to the electricity plan at yesterday's meeting, and that today’s meeting will decide the final version in preparation for submitting it to Cabinet on Friday that will convene in an extraordinary session at the Presidential Palace.

They added that the committee has made important changes to the basic plan that will provide energy needs, before the end of this year, totalling to 20hr per day for regions outside Beirut and 24hr inside the capital.

The panel has met on Monday and was attended by Deputy PM Ghassan Hasbani, the ministers Ali Hassan Khalil, Jamal al-Jarrah, Akram Shehayyeb, Mohammed Fneish, Youssef Fenianos, Camille Abu Suleiman, Nada al-Bustani and Adel Afiouni, Cabinet secretary-general Mahmoud Makkiyeh, World Bank representatives and a number of advisers.

The meeting was described as “very positive,” said Information Minister Jamal al-Jarrah after the meeting, “a huge progress has been made in agreeing in principle on some key points in the plan and in the electricity policy,” he said.