Officials of the Ministry of Ports and Shipping on Wednesday informed a parliamentary panel that M/s Burj Power will develop a coal-fired Independent Power Project (IPP) at Port Qasim with a capacity of 300 megawatts. The Senate's standing committee on port and shipping, which met here with Sardar Fateh Muhammad Hassani in the chair, discussed the current status of development projects undertaken by Port Qasim Authority (PQA).
PQA officials said that M/s Burj Power - a Dubai-based company - has shown interest in jointly developing a coal-fired power plant at PQA covering an area of 140 acres. The project's capacity, they said, would later be enhanced to 600MW. M/s Burj Power will bring its own financial and human resources to develop and run the power plant in line with the policies of Private Power & Infrastructure Board (PPIB), PQA's chairman Brigadier (Retd) Saeed Ahmed Khan said.
The officials said that PQA had also been tasked to set up floating LNG terminals and developers including Pakistan GasPort Limited, Engro Corporation Limited, Global Energy Infrastructure Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd and Fauji Oil Terminal Company had already been allocated sites. Officials of the ministry said that the land issue with Pakistan Navy at the Gwadar port still remained to be resolved. The committee constituted a three-member sub-committee under the chairmanship of Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo to resolve the issue and report back in two months.
It also directed the ministry to devise a comprehensive plan regarding the Port Qasim providing incentives to Balochistan. PQA officials said that coal and clinker/cement berth is under construction on BOT basis with a capacity of 8 million tons per annum at an estimated cost of $180 million. The berth would be designed to handle 75,000 DWT vessels. Implantation agreement was signed on October 26, 2010 and is expected to be completed by May 2015.
They said that PQA has acquired a dredger from China Shipbuilding Trading Company (CSTC) on lease-purchase for a three-year period. The dredger arrived at PQA on January 5, 2013 and commenced dredging work with effect from January 7.
A CSTC crew will man the dredger and be responsible for repair/maintenance during the lease period. Moreover, spare parts for repair/maintenance of the dredger are part of the Contract. Cost on consumables, including paints and docking, will be borne by the CSTC.
PQA is to provide POL (fuel, lube oil, water and other necessary supplies) during the lease period. PQA will be saving nearly $10 million per annum on account of dredging. The officials further said that a state-of-the-art ASD Tug and a Pilot (with a 20-knot speed) built in Turkey arrived at PQA on April 22 this year. The cost of both vessels was $12.25 million. PQA officials informed that Bundal and Buddo Islands near the PQA area, which have great potential for residential cum commercial state-of-the-art facilities with leisure of resorts, theme park and modern urban development and port related facilities. These Islands are spread over 12,000 acres of land. PQA had invited proposals through advertisement for appointment of consultant and developers for the project on BOT basis.
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