KARACHI – President Asif Ali Zardari said on Monday that the conceptual master planning of the Zulfikarabad along with the identification of the new mega city’s first phase should be completed within this year so that year 2011 could rightly be termed as the ‘Year of Zulfikarabad’. The president also instructed that a meeting of the Pak-China Joint Energy Working Group should be held soon so the proposal for the financing of another mega project in the province – the Thar Coal Project – could formally be taken up with the Chinese government.
Briefing the media, president’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said that the president presided over separate meetings at the Bilawal House to review the progress of these two mega projects in Sindh. The chief minister, provincial ministers and federal and provincial government officials attended the meetings. Babar said that during the meeting on the Thar coal project, it was informed that the bankable feasibility of the project has been completed and it is ready for execution as soon as the financial close was achieved and critical infrastructure completed.
The infrastructure projects associated with the Thar Coal include water supply for the coalfields, setting up power transmission lines, disposal of effluent from Thar coal, provision of road and rail links to the project site and the construction of an airport in Islamkot, he said.
