Thar coal: ‘Influential elements hindering project’

Sindh finance minister says delays are a conspiracy.

KARACHI:

Sindh Minister for Finance Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that influential elements are obstructing the plan for effective utilisation of Thar coal. He said that despite the presence of 185 billion tons of coal reserves in Thar that could churn out thousands of megawatts of electricity, the country continues to face growing spells of power outages.

He was talking to the business community at the Karachi Chambers of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday, where he also said that two Chinese companies have expressed their interest in investing in Thar coal projects.

He said that the Sindh government had tagged Rs125 billion for development projects which was later reduced to Rs77 billion due to floods. “There is a need to reduce non-development expenditure and we are trying to implement this plan,” he said.

Sindh Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Ayaz Soomro, in his brief speech, also said that non-exploitation of Sindh coal reserves was a conspiracy against the province to prevent it from becoming a developed part of the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2011.