The Sindh government and Engro Chemicals Limited have agreed to form a joint venture for the development of Thar coal mining and power generation. The proposal to develop Thar coal for power generation, with reserves estimated at 850 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas, about 30 times higher than Pakistan's proven gas reserves of 28 TCF, has been touted for the past forty years.
Unlike Kalabagh dam where there is no provincial consensus, Thar coal project has been held hostage to lack of investment, attributed to stringent environment protection safeguards that barred bilaterals and multilaterals from investing in coal mining projects, to lack of an agreement on tariff between NEPRA and the Sindh Government.
The federal government abolished the Sindh Coal Authority to end the row over the tariff issue and has formed Thar Coal Authority, with the objective of attracting investment for the project estimated at 4 billion dollars in a phased manner - an estimate released by the former Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Akram Sheikh. Chief Minister Sindh is the Chairman of the authority while the Vice Chairman is Federal Minister for Water and Power and Deputy Chairman Planning Commission is its Deputy Chairman.
A genuine attempt on the part of the federal government to resolve all issues pertaining to Thar coal mining and power generation project is evident. Given the massive loadshedding that the country is currently experiencing, and the expected delay for the operation of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline, there is an urgent need to explore domestic energy sources. In the absence of other viable options coal seems to be the obvious way to go.