Civil work at the Thar Coal Power Project has come to a halt after completion of the mining activity for removal of overburden up to four million cubic meters in the allocated area, it is learnt reliably. "There is no movement of a single truck, loader or excavator on the site right now," the sources added. A representative from a local construction firm confirmed that his company has stopped mining activity after removing four million cubic meter overburden from the coal field.
"We can only continue with the removal of the remaining overburden up to the depth of 112 million cubic meter in case the Sindh Engro asks us to do so and settle the terms for new allocation of work," said Mirza Zafar Hussain of Bilal Contract and Transport Company. He further said that the company has finished the task by achieving one million safe-man hours, which is a record in the mining history of Pakistan.
It is apprehended that the Sindh government might defer the development work at the Thar coal after the availability of cheap re-gasified liquid natural gas (RLNG) from Qatar. It is worth mentioning that Punjab-based textile industry has already started raising eyebrows over the setting up of Rs 120 billion Sahiwal Coal Power project, saying that there is no need of power generation through coal after the availability of RLNG at a highly affordable rate.
"The government can easily supply RLNG to the IPPs when the domestic demand touches the peak during summer," they argued. However, the Chief Executive Officer of Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company, Shams Uddin Sheikh dispelled the impression and said the civil works was undergoing as per plan on the site. "The work is under progress in full scale. We will make a financial close by the end of this month," he added.
But he admitted a slow pace of work, saying that a handing over of the work the Chinese contractor is in process on the site, which has brought the work to a halt like situation. He said he has also briefed the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif about the progress on the project last week. "The PM has assured of full support because the project is the most important project to overcome energy shortage," he added. He said the RLNG import cannot be a substitute of the coal as a cheap source of power generation, which will generate electricity at six cents per kilowatt hour.
"No one can guarantee that prices of oil and gas would not accelerate in coming years, therefore, availability of energy generation sources like hydel and coal are essential to a country like us," he stressed. He further said that there was a financial crisis as the financial closure has not been done to date and that is one of the reasons for the project has been slowed down.
The co-ordinator of the Sindh Engro, Abul Fazal Rizvi said the local contractor has removed three percent of the overburden out of a total of 112 million cubic meters on the site. "We are waiting for the main Chinese contractor firm CMEC to start remaining work on the site and some two dozen trucks have also arrived a day earlier to resume work," he added. He said there are also over 100 Chinese Engineers on the site and more would be arriving with the availability of external financing, both from Chinese and Pakistani banks.
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