Effective Management of Elctric Supply In Pakistan

I was going through the website of US embassy on Facebook the other day and just saw two orange rickshaws ( a form of a local taxi in Pakistan)  parked near the electricity office in Peshawar, Pakistan with ladders on their top and some other equipment lying nearby. Its not a commercial Rickshaw as we might perceive  USAID Pakistan has donated these 8 modified rickshaws and other maintenance equipment to the Governments elerticty managment company.


Source : http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151083831928621&set=a.177646208620.124211.160073033620&type=1&theater

The electric company's linemen can use this efficient mode of transportation which has a low cost and also because of its small size can easily maneuver in the narrow city streets.I think its another achievement of the social innovators who have come up with this idea of providing economical method of communication for the linemen to travel to various areas within the city for carrying out repair work and to remove illegal connections.
             Presently the country is facing a severe electricity shortage and at times the outages last for almost 20 hours a day even in some of the developed cities like Karachi. The present energy deficit is affecting not only the economy of the country but also the life of ordinary people  who can not work, study or have some relief in the sweltering heat.
             The government and the people do realize the need to overcome the energy deficit and  many efforts are underway to produce more electricity like the construction of a new hydroelectric dam on River Indus in the Northern Part of the country. That is a long term option and it will take some years for the dam to complete and supplement the national electricity grid. The need of the day is to focus on short term methods to conserve energy and improve the quality of life of the people. The introduction of these rickshaws will greatly help in effective management of electricity supply. One of the main reasons for the electricity shortage are the illegal connections or theft of electricity. Those who steal electricity do not pay any kind of electric bill and cause a huge loss to the national exchequer. The government has to ultimately offer subsidies to overcome this deficit. Small interventions like improving the management of  electric companies can go a long way in curbing theft of electricity. By provision of these rickshaws the performance of the linemen will improve and they will be able to cover most of the areas in a short time. Though there are only 8 rickshaws which have been donated so far but they can be manfucatured on large scale if proven to be effective.