ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is likely to approve on December 13 a private-sector loan of $100 million – with a political-risk guarantee of $50 million – for the 404-megawatt Uch II Power Plant in Balochistan.
The project involves the construction, erection and operation of the low British thermal unit (BTU) combined cycle power-plant. Uch II would be constructed adjacent to the 586 MW Uch 1 Power Plant at Dera Murad Jamali, which has been operational since 2000. The plant was located 47 kilometres away from the Uch Gas Reservoir.
The project would increase the net power generation capacity by 375.2 MW and promote higher energy efficiency. By using domestic gas, the project would decrease reliance on imported oil and diesel fuel for power generation, thereby relieving pressure on precarious foreign exchange reserves.
The Uch II project would be developed under the 2002 Power Policy and would be undertaken under a 25-year build-own-and-operate structure. The power sector regulator, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), had already approved the tariff for the power plant.
The plant would be constructed on barren land adjacent to Uch-I, which was acquired by the sponsors from the government of Balochistan at the time of Uch-I’s construction in the late 1990’s. No indigenous people were residing on or were using the project site.
Detailed community consultation was conducted in 10 villages inhabited by the Jamali, Jakhrani, Khoso, Mengal, Lari, Panhwar, and Pandrani tribes. In addition, more than 100 settlements were surveyed to gather socio-economic data and communities were generally supportive of the project.
The ADB was one of Pakistan’s strategic development partners for infrastructure development, with power as one of the main areas of support. The bank planned to continue emphasising ‘lending for economic infrastructure’, which was consistent with the high priority attached to it in the government’s medium-term development framework.
