Thar coal project important for Pakistan: Qaim

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah held a meeting at the Chief Minister’s House on Monday to discuss provincial issues regarding the forthcoming National Economic Council (NEC) meeting.
The meeting was attended among others by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Dr Nadeem Haq, Planning Secretary Asif Bajwa, Board of Investment (BOI) Chairman Zubair Motiwala, Planning & Development Additional Chief Secretary Israr Malik, BOI Secretary Mrs Naheed S Durrani and Sindh Coal Secretary Sohail Rajput.
The chief minister said that it would be the endeavour of the present government to pay full attention to development with emphasis to meet the needs of every province.
He said that some commitments of President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani need to be fulfilled, whereas the government intends to complete some of the important schemes by December this year to provide relief and facilities to the poor and ordinary citizens.
Shah said that people would witness some mega projects soon. He also said that to meet the challenges of electricity shortage, the Thar coal project is an important project for Pakistan.
He said that all provinces and the prime minister have agreed on the importance of the Thar coal energy project, and have termed it beneficial to the country.
The chief minister said that around 50,000MW of electricity would be generated through the Thar coal project.
After a long discussion, a federal government team headed by Dr Nadeem Haq agreed that the issue of transmission line from the site of the Thar coal project to Matiari would be resolved and be gotten approved from the Executive Committee of the NEC.
With regard to completion of the Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas dual carriageway road on public-private partnership basis with a Korean firm, Dr Haq appreciated the efforts and said that other similar projects in the sectors of health, education and transportation would be encouraged by the federal government. Earlier, Israr Malik highlighted the proposed development schemes of Sindh.