Power generation through coal-fired units urged

The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged the government to adopt cheaper means of electricity generation as thermal power would hardly be serving the purpose of economic turnaround at this point in time.
The LCCI President Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry, Senior Vice President Ijaz A Mumtaz and Vice President Faisal Iqbal Sheikh in a joint statement here on Wednesday said that there was a dire need to initiate work on coal-fired electricity generation plants for being even cheaper than that of gas fired units.
They said that availability of electricity was not the only issue being faced by the business community, but it should be cheaper as well. They said that China was producing more than fifty percent of its total consumed electricity through coal means while India was producing almost forty percent but unfortunately in Pakistan less than one percent of power was being produced through coal based power generation units despite the fact that coal was available in abundance in Pakistan.
Pakistan is rich country in natural resources, having coal reserves around 185 billion tons only in Thar, which are equivalent to 618 billion barrels of crude oil. If these reserves are compared with the oil reserves of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, these are more than twice and are equal to the total oil reserves of the top four countries, they added.
"China is a time-test friend of Pakistan and it could seek Chinese help for electricity generation through coal means that would not only be ensuring provision of electricity to the country, but would also be creating a large number of job opportunities as well," they maintained.
The LCCI office-bearers said that shortage of electricity in the presence such a huge coal reserves is beyond the understanding of the common man in general and the industrialists and traders in particular. They said had a little attention been given towards the electricity generation through coal-fired units, the situation would definitely have been quite encouraging. They said that now at this point in time the export oriented industry was the hardest hit, and they were unable to meet the export orders and were fast losing the foreign clients.
"There was no second opinion about it that the government was taking a number of short-term measures for power generation, but it should also concentrate on coal-fired power generation units that would be for a longer term," they said and added the government should immediately announce some incentives to motivate the private sector that has the ability and capacity to ensure expeditious installation of coal-based electricity generation plants.