ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Tuesday that his government’s top priority was to rid the country of chronic loadshedding by 2017.

Addressing the ground-breaking ceremony of the 24-km signal free corridor of the Islamabad Expressway, Mr Sharif said that besides development of infrastructure, the government was equally concentrating on energy-related projects.

The prime minister said that this year there was less loadshedding than last year and mentioned a number of ongoing power projects, eg the 960MW Neelum Jhelum, 1400MW Tarbella-IV and 1000MW by LNG which, he said, would help address the issue of power shortage.

He said the government had lowered the power tariff by Rs5.32 per unit.