Minister for Water and Power Ahmad Mukhtar on Saturday said power generation from Thar coal had not been workable so far. In an interview with BBC, he said Dr Samar Mubarakmand was trying to generate electricity through Thar coal with highly advanced technology, but his efforts had not yielded desired result. “We have decided to import coal and produce cheap electricity from it to overcome the power shortfall and reduce the overall cost of power production. We cannot wait for ever for electricity, we need it immediately, however, Dr Samar has not given any breakthrough so far,” he added.
Asked why so much time and money was spent on Dr Samar’s project, the minister said only Samar could reply to the question. He stated he had obtained approval from President Asif Ali Zardari in respect of a project for overcoming power crisis. Power load shedding could be scaled down to three hours within a year through this project, he remarked. Giving details of the project costing $4 billion, he said coal worth $1 billion would be imported and an agreement had been signed to import generators from China to produce electricity. “These generators will reach Pakistan within a few months. They will produce 2,200 megawatts of electricity,” he said. “One billion dollars will be spent on reducing the circular debt and improvement will come in power generation process this way,” he added. He pointed out that a special police force was being set up to stop power pilferage.
Thar coal power generation project not workable: Ahmad Mukhtar
