The first test burn at the underground coal gasification project at Tharparkar in Sindh province is expected to be conducted next month. 100 megawatt electricity is planned to be generated by the project by December 2013. Official sources said the first gasification and civil works of the project have been completed at the cost of over $9 million.
Meanwhile two Chinese and Australian companies have expressed interest in huge coal deposits at Thar. Block-one in Thar Coal has been allocated to Chinese company Global Mining‚ which plans to develop five million tons of coal field annually to produce 900MW which would be gradually increased to 2000MW. Australian Continental Energy has also submitted a proposal for mining six million tons of coal annually and increasing it to 18 million tons. The company intends to produce about 1000MW electricity.