Members of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Science and Technology on Wednesday urged the authorities concerned to stop hatching conspiracies against projects of national importance such as the Thar Coal Project and said that funds for the project were not being released intentionally.
Scientist and Member Science and Technology, Planning Commission, Dr Samar Mubarkmand briefed the committee over the Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) project. He regretted that despite an approved funding mechanism for the project, funds were not released on time by the finance ministry. The project, approved by Executive Committee on National Economic Council (Ecnec) and the finance ministry, gave a letter of comfort in the name of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) to facilitate the project. The scientist also said that when the NBP was contacted, the official refused to follow the directive of the finance ministry to give funds for the project.
Dr Samar Mubarakmand told the committee that Thar coal might be converted via the gasification process into diesel, fertiliser, chemical ethanol and fuel gas and it can even be used for power generation. China, India, Russia and other developed countries had applied gasification method for utilising coal reserves. He said the Planning Commission had initiated a Thar coal project with Rs 984 million and drilled 38 wells to demonstrate whether gas had been made from coal or not. According to him, these wells could easily yield 30 million cubic feet of fuel gas.
The scientist said that the second phase of the Thar Coal project was related to power generation using the gasification process. For this purpose, he said, the Thar Coal Board had made and got approved a PC-I worth Rs 9.88 billion. The Finance Ministry gives letter of comfort for National Bank of Pakistan to import equipment for power generation. However, for this purpose, the government provided no fund and the project remained stand still. He also said that if the government started power generation from the Thar Coal, it will be available at just Rs 4-5 per unit.
The scientist said that five Thar coal blocks had been allotted to local and international companies and three more blocks were also available for investment. He said no one was ready to work there, but they were just start criticising the UCG project. Lieutenant General (Retd) Shahid Niaz, Member, Implementation & Monitoring, Planning Commission, told the committee that main problem was the provision of funds for the UCG project, as it is of national importance project.
The Additional Secretary Ministry of Finance informed the committee that the government had allocated Rs 900 million for the UCG project and when asked, it will be released. Dr Samar Mubarakmand informed the committee that the finance ministry had not released a single penny for the Rs 9.8 billion Thar Coal power generation project. He claimed that the out-going Secretary of the Planning Commission never wrote the finance ministry for the release of funds, adding that even requests of the Prime Minister and President of Pakistan were not honoured in this regard.
The committee's members expressed displeasures that top two government executives orders were not obeyed by the ministry of finance. He also informed the committee that President Asif Ali Zardari assured him of complete payment of Rs 9.8 billion for power generation through Thar Coal project. The scientist told the committee that 60 gasifiers were needed to produce 1,500 mmcfd natural gas.
The committee, which was chaired by Dr Abdul Kadir Khanzada, was told that Thar coal is future of Pakistan, but due to non-availability of the required funds the project was pending. The committee was apprised about the new option for Pakistan with UCG from Thar Coal and with the process of Thar Coal they could make power steam, diesel, low cost/low-grade gas, methanol and ammonia urea (Fertiliser). Member of the Planning Commission informed the committee that he checked the said project on the site and found it practicable.