ISLAMABAD: Parliamentary Secretary Raja Muhammad Javed Ikhlas on Wednesday informed the National Assembly that Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) had approved the underground gasification project 2x50 MW Power Plant from Syngas (IGCC-2009) Tharparker December 9, 2010 at a cost of Rs. 8898.7 million including foreign exchange component (FEC) of Rs. 5847.3 million.

Responding to various questions during question hour, he said work on the project was started in 2012 and an amount of Rs 3711 million had been spent on it so far.

However, he conceded that pace of work on the project remained very slow. A committee has been constituted fro third party validation of the project, he said and added that the committee would carry out third party validation.

To another question, he said the environmental considerations have been ensured by making provision as ‘Part D’ (Environmental and Social Safeguard Appraisal) in PC-I of all development Projects.

All the development projects have to go through the environmental and social safeguard scrutiny and also need to get prior permissions/approval from the Pak Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and provincial EPAs in accordance with Pakistan Environmental Act 1997.