As many as three Chinese companies are due to arrive here next month to start work on coal exploration and setting up of 200MW coal-fired power plants at Thar and Sonda-Jherruk, Thatta district in Sindh.
Official sources told Business Recorder on Tuesday that China Northeast Company, Shenhua Group and China AES Company are likely to visit in September to start coal exploration at the Sonda-Jherruk and would also review their ongoing projects at Thar.
On a request from the China Northeast Company, the Sindh Coal Authority (SCA) on Tuesday sent a detailed development report on coal projects at various exploration sites in Thatta, sources said.
They said the Shenhua Group, who had planned to set up a 600MW plant at an estimated cost of $500 million in Thar, might also negotiate tariff structure with the government. Earlier, Wapda had offered the group 5.7 cents power per unit. The Chinese company contested the offer on the plea that since Wapda is paying eight to 13 cents per unit to gas-based, diesel based and fuel oil-based IPPs, it should, as well, increase the tariff for the electricity produced by the coal-fired power plants.
The sources said that about 7.334 billion tonnes of fine quality coal had been identified at Sonda-Jherruck and Badin district. While total reserves in Sindh province were estimated at 184 billion tonnes. The other sites where coal reserves have been discovered are in Thar 175 billion tonnes and at Lakhra 1.32 billion tonnes.
The federal government had recently decided to support the deployment of cost-effective and environment-friendly technologies for electricity generation from coal to plug power deficit.
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