At least six national and international companies have expressed interest to set up joint venture with Sindh government for mining in Thar coal field Block II, official sources told Business Recorder.
The firms which are willing to form joint venture with provincial government are Engro Group, Jahangir Siddiqui Group, Al-Tuwairqi Group of Saudi Arabia, Lucky Cement Group, Giga Group of UAE, and Metal Holding Group of UAE.
Sindh Department of Mines and Mineral had sought proposals from private sector for joint venture in Thar coal mining. Sources said that the World Bank has offered to provide technical assistance to develop the framework for development of Thar coal field.
The objective of the project is to lay technical, economic, environmental, social, legal and institutional foundation for sustainable development of coal reserves of Thar, and install power generation plants to utilise its coal.
The proposed project, named 'Sindh Province Thar Coal and Power Technical Assistance Project' (Scaptap) is scheduled to take off in the next few weeks, under project preparation facility of World Bank with the counterpart funding from Sindh government.
The project is estimated to cost $26 million, in which the World Bank is expected to provide IDA credit up to 80-90 percent, while the Sindh government would contribute 10-20 percent of the cost, under the head 'counterpart funding'.
Sources said that Sindh government and World Bank teams had held discussions on the role of TCEB. During the talks it was felt that some clarifications were required to be made regarding the notification of TCEB and its role vis-à-vis other licensing/approving agencies of GoP and GoS.
They said that the government has approved the objective, activities and timeline of the technical assistance project being prepared with the assistance of the World Bank, and the federal government has also been asked to issue notification supporting the role of TCEB in approving coal-based power projects on behalf of the federal government agencies.