Marine-linked infrastructure at Gadani power park: Construction plan approved by Ecnec

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Friday approved the construction of a marine-linked infrastructure for 6600 MW Pakistan Power Park at Gadani, Balochistan at a cost of Rs 146.60 billion. The meeting presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was told that the project envisages development of related infrastructure facilities at the Pakistan Power Park in Gadani to establish 10 imported Coal-Fired Power Generation plants based on supercritical, pulverised coal platform technology to generate 6600 MW electricity.
Each power plant would have the capacity to generate 660 MW. The main scope of project includes marine works comprising two breakwaters each measuring 3.5 km and 1100m long jetties/ berths for receiving ships of sizes of 40,000 DWT to 210000 DWT, including a floating jetty for anchoring small boats/ tug boats, provision of cooling water facilities and other related infrastructure. The meeting was told that the project would be completed in 42 months.
The Ecnec also considered and approved Greater Karachi Water Supply Scheme K-IV (Phase I)-260 MGD from the east bank of Keenjhar Lake in district Thatta to Karachi city with a cost of Rs 25.5 billion on 50/50 cost sharing basis by federal and Sindh governments as was directed by the Prime Minister.
The project has been designed with a total capacity of 650 MGD (million gallons per day) to meet the water demand of 18.5 million inhabitants of Karachi City. The present water demand in Karachi is approximately1000 MGD, whereas the total existing supply is 650 MGD, resulting in a shortfall of 350 MGD. The project will be completed in 4 years. The Finance Minister said that the Prime Minister during his recent visit to Karachi announced this important project for citizens of Karachi and a joint mechanism will be evolved for the project implementation. He added that project should be supervised jointly by the Government of Pakistan and the Government of Sindh.
The meeting was attended by Pervaiz Rashid, Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage, Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan, Minister for National Food Security and Research, Zahid Hamid, Minister for Science and Technology, Mohammad Zubair, Chairman Privatisation Commission, Mian Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman, Minister for Finance, Punjab, Syed Murad Ali Shah, Advisor to Chief Minister Sindh on Finance, Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal, Provincial Minister Balochistan, Abdul Hakeem Baloch, Minister of State (MOS) for Communications, Federal Secretaries and senior officials of federal and provincial governments.