KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah awarded exploring licenses to Sindh Lakhra Coal Mining Company (SLCMC) over 20,000 acres at Thatta/Sonda to conduct a feasibility study for development of mining while presiding over the 30th Sindh Coal Authority (SCA) Board meeting here at the CM House on Thursday.
The board meeting was attended by its members, Members Provincial Assembly Dr Mahesh Kumar, Ghulam Qadir Chandio, Khairunisa Mughal, Chairman Planning & Development Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary Sohail Rajput, Secretary Energy Agha Wasif, Secretary Finance Jahangir, SCA Director General Arjan Kumar and other concerned officers.
The chief minister said that significant coal reserves are available at small coal fields of Sonda, Jhimpir, Lakhra, Indus East and Badin but major mining activity is going on only at Lakhra while limited activity is in progress at Jhimpir. Therefore, the chief minister directed SLCMC to initiate projects there.
Since the road sector works have been taken away from the SCA, therefore the chief minister also abolished the positions of chief engineer, superintendent engineer, executive engineer, assistant director (engineering) and of protocol officer. On the recommendation of SCA, the board approved the creation of some positions such as assistant director (Finance) BS-17 and deputy director (mining) BS-18.