CM Sindh call for urgent selection of pre-treatment technology for LBOD water for Thar coal       

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the completion of Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) scheme to provide water to Thar Coal Block-II was most important for further investment in the energy sector, therefore appropriate technology for pre-treatment such as Reverse Osmoses (RO) or Membrane Bio Reactor (MBR) should be selected as soon as possible.

This he said while presiding over a meeting regarding installation of pre-treatment for RO plant at Nabisar for Thar Coal Block-II here at the CM House on Saturday, said a statement.

The meeting was attended by Minister Energy Imtiaz Shaikh, Special Assistant to CM on Irrigation Ashfaq Memon, Chairperson P&D Naheed Shah, Secretary Energy Musadiq Khan, Secretary Finance Najam Shah, Secretary Irrigation Dr Saeed Mangnijo, Khalid Masroor CEO of HUBCO, Abul Fazal Rizvi CEO SECMC, Saleemullah Memon CEO TEL & ThalNova, Ahsan Zafar Syed CEO Engro Energy, Haji Khan Jamali Superintendent Engineer Irrigation Thar Coal Project and other concerned officers.

The chief minister was told that the scheme of pre-treatment at Nabisar for Thar Coal Block-II was approved by the government at Rs. 3.25 billion. The scheme for pre-treatment was prepared to feed 60 cusecs of raw water to RO plant.

The design of pre-treatment was based on ultra filtration basis. Later, the work was stopped on the scheme and on the request of the  SECM and power companies, a revised scheme of Rs. 14.3 billion was prepared based on Membrane Bio Reactor (MBR) technology and it was designed for inflow of 75 cusecs.

The Planning and development department raised serious objections against rise in the cost from Rs. 3.25 billion to Rs. 14.325 billions. Therefore, matter was referred to the provincial cabinet.

On the recommendation of the cabinet committee, NESPAK was hired as third party consultant for recommendation of technology and financial review.

Now, the power companies have requested that due to urgency for operation of power units updated Ultra filtration technology for discharge of 75 cusecs raw water may be approved and save the time required by the consultant.

The water quality required for the pre-treatment plant should have certain parameters such as biochemical oxygen demand (BODs), Chemical oxygen demand (COD) suspended solids (SS), total nitrogen (TN), ammonia nitrogen (NH4+), feed water fouling index, free chlorine, Iron and manganese.

The chief minister directed Minister Energy Imtiaz Shaikh to call a joint meeting of Power Companies, SECM and NESPAk to discuss the urgency of selection of the technology.

"I am also of the view that we should resolve this matter so that operation of power plants being installed there can be started," he said.

The CM Sindh said that major achievement has been made by launching 660 MW Thar Coal power plants but "we have to expand this generation by installing more plants," he said and added Thar was the future of Pakistan and we have to work on it more effectively and efficiently.