Thar Coal Power Project: over $20 billion foreign investment expected in six months

[Neo]

Thar Coal Power Project: over $20 billion foreign investment expected in six months​

KARACHI (March 16 2009): The Thar Coal Power Project (TCPP) would attract over $20 billion foreign investment within next six months, an official of Sindh Coal Authority Board (SCAB) told Business Recorder on Sunday. According to Sharjeel Memon, one of the SCABs governors, a host of interested companies from United States, China, Britain, Singapore, South Korea, Germany, Poland, Australia etc would invest over $20 billion in the Tharparkar-based energy project.

Memon, who is also the member of provincial assembly of Sindh, revealed that even the neighbouring India had shown interest in the attractive coal-based power generation project, TCPP. He, however, opined that tension at border and an ongoing blame-game between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours were likely to keep New Delhi away from the project. The SCAB official also linked the expected investment with an early end to the ongoing political turmoil in the country.

"Lots of MoUs have been signed and a host of foreign firms keen to invest in the coal sector are visiting the Chief Minister on almost daily basis... work is underway on war footing basis," he added. Also, he said, President Asif Ali Zardari, during his recent visit to China, had inked different MoUs with the investors in Beijing.

He said a nine-member Korean delegation, which had held a "fruitful" meeting with Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah last Thursday, would soon start boring for mining in Blocks 4 and 8 of the site.

The coal exploration work would follow the power generation process that, the MPA said, was a federal subject and would be carried out by Islamabad.

According to Memon the TCPP would help Sindh province generate at least 7000-8000 MW electricity by 2012, which would not only cater to the countrys 3,500MW power shortage, but would also be exported to the neighbouring countries. He said the provincial government had undertaken a fast track infrastructure development in Thar, along with a coal based mine-mouth thermal power plant by a Korean firm at an estimate cost of $3 billion. According to Asad Ali Shah, another SCAB member, a coal-based power generation plant in Thar would help Pakistan save a huge sum of $8 billion it was presently paying for imports of oil to run its power generation units. A recent study has revealed that Tharparkar has 175 billion tons of coal reserves with a best power generation quality, he added.

 

[Hyde]

I wish it will become reality but i don't think this is actually happen

I am hearing similar news since Musharraf's era but never heard any project being started these are only paper work agreements and if somehow any agreement started i am finding difficuilty to remember any project being completed

so i always believe when the project is completed or at least come on TV Channels saying that it has now been started and the Prime Minister type person went there to inaugurate such projects

i think when u combine the amount of investment we are hearing in such articles since 2000 it should surpas 100s of billions of dollars but when it comes to reality i don't see any major project being carried out a part from Gwadar or few major roads being built in Pakistan

 

[RabzonKhan]

Editorial: Welcome move on Thar coal project

March 19, 2009

The Thar Coal and Energy Board, led by the Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, has alloted Block-8 of the Thar coalfield to the UAE’s Bin Daen Group Dubai and Korea’s PEDCO for exploring the coal deposits and establishing a 1,000 MW “mine-mouth” thermal power plant in Tharparkar. This will be the first and largest single thermal power plant in Pakistan, which will provide electricity to more than two million households and 600,000 factories, besides creating approximately 90,000 jobs for both skilled and unskilled labourers. Federal water and power minister Raja Pervez Ashraf was on hand watching the beginning of this very important addition to the national energy grid.

The Thar Coal Authority, the earlier version, was disbanded in October last year when the Sindh government objected that it was controlled by the federal government. The Thar Coal and Energy Board came into being thereafter in accordance with the constitutional “designation” of what part of the mineral resources has to remain with the federation. The coal deposit in Tharparkar is one of the largest in the world. The coalfield contains 175 billion tons of coal in an area of over 9,000 square kilometres, promising fuel availability for a long time. It was put on the backburner because of bureaucratic red tape; therefore the new Board began with misgivings. It might still have to remain vigilant over red tape as it moves to practicalities.

Pakistan went wrong on the energy sector many times. It politicised the induction of the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) by the Benazir Bhutto government during the 1990s. Seeing how the matter of pricing was treated, the bureaucrats negotiating the Thar coal project with the Chinese balked on the projected prices and allowed the project to fall through. The same kind of “fear” over pricing has stalked our negotiations with Iran in the case of the gas pipeline in a seller’s market. Coal may be our saviour, now that the Iranian pipeline has been eclipsed by security problems too. India and China burn coal to obtain electricity. Why should we insist on gas as our main fuel which is soon going to exhaust in any case?