KARACHI: Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan said government has formulated a plan to generate 10,000 megawatts electricity from Thar coal by the year 2020.
The federal government has been approached to lay transmission line for electricity from Thar field to national grid station, he said
Installation of transmission line is planned to be completed in two phases by June 2014, at a cost of Rs 21 billion.
The federal government has been approached to lay transmission line from Thar field to national grid station while presiding over a meeting on Thar coal at Governor House here on Thursday.
Governor pointed out that Thar coal will be utilized to make Pakistan self sufficient in power generation to strengthen economy and make this area as the hub of petrochemical industry.
He was of the opinion that approval of transmission network by the federal government was vital for the successful progress of Thar coal project.
All the stakeholders and financial institutions can play more effective role when transmission network takes a final shape, he noted.
Earlier, provincial Secretary Coal and Energy Development Younus Dagha while briefing the Governor on the progress of Thar coal project said that at least 2,400 MW of power will be generated under the project in next three years. About 25,000 MW will be generated from Thar coal in next 17 years, he added.
He said Thar coal field is the 7th largest coal reserves in the world with nearly 175 billion tons of black gold equivalent to 50 billion of crude oil (TOEs).
This is larger than the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia and Iran and equal to 2000 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas reserves.
He said that Sindh has a total of 186 billion tons of coal, Punjab 235 billion tons, Balochistan 217 billion tons, Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa 90 billion tons and Azad Jammu Kashmir 9 billion tons of coal reserves.
Dagha said Thar coal field has been declared as special economic zone where the rate of return on investment is 20 percent in dollar terms. In addition, the import of machinery, equipment and vehicles for the coal site is duty free while withholding tax, excise duty and other levies are exempted for initial 30 years, he added.
He informed the Governor that three road network schemes costing Rs 9.6 billion will be completed in the area by the end of 2012. These included a 200-kilometer road connecting Thar coal field to Karachi via Thatta and Badin.
Similarly, effluent disposal system will be completed by December 2012 at a cost of Rs 3.7 billion to flush out water from Thar coal field.
Three reverse osmosis plants for producing clean drinking water and rescue station have already been completed at the site, he said.
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