KARACHI – Thar Coal and Energy Board (TCEB) Chairman Syed Qaim Ali Shah has requested the Federal Minister For Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf to take up Thar coal power projects during the next round of Pak-US Energy Dialogue.
The funding being sought from the Kerry-Lugar package is for at least one indigenous coal mining and power project at Thar with a capacity to generate between 4,000 and 5,000 megawatts of electricity.
According to the minutes of the tenth board meeting of TCEB held in November, the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah who is also the Board’s Chairman, had requested the federal minister for water and power who is in addition serving the TCEB in capacity of vice chairman, to help in this regard. The federal minister agreed and assured the board that he would take the matter up with all relevant bodies and that the TCEB Managing Director (MD) Ajaz Ali Khan would prepare a draft letter from CM Sindh to Federal Minister for Water and Power in this regard.
The chairman also requested the minister to send a communique informing the World Bank that Thar Coal is a cost effective option for Pakistan and that the bank must back the project in order to ensure energy security for the country.
Earlier, the MD apprised the board that on the advice of World Bank, the ministry of water and power has undertaken an exercise through a consultant to demonstrate that coal is the least costly alternative for the country with regards to power generation.
Once this report is submitted to the World Bank, it will consider investment in the coal sector of Pakistan, but this exercise has dragged on for the last six to seven months and needs to be expedited, he added. In addition, the MD noted that the Sindh government has allocated Rs 10 billion for coal development in Thar during the current financial year, while there is no fund allocation on the part of the federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). The minister was also requested to act on the decision reached in the last board meeting to approach the federal government to provide matching allocation for infrastructure development in the Thar coal project and must be taken up with finance minister and prime minister. The federal minister assured the board that the matter will be taken up with relevant authorities in the federal government.
