Required: PQA demands textile city’s land for LNG power plants

Points out 1,500 acres of city’s land has remained unutilised for nine years

ISLAMABAD: The Port Qasim Authority (PQA) has asked the prime minister to provide 1,500 acres of land, which was earlier allocated for setting up a textile city, for building new liquefied natural gas (LNG)-based power plants.

“PQA is short of land which is needed for installing more LNG-based power production plants,” an official quoted PQA chairman as telling Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy.

He noted that 1,500 acres of land initially earmarked for establishing a textile city at Port Qasim was lying unutilised as nine years had passed and not a single project had been undertaken on that piece of land.

Furthermore, he said, the textile city had become a liability with a debt burden of Rs2.8 billion and its land should be handed over to the PQA for installing new LNG plants.



He also touched on the topic of coal transportation, saying it was difficult to construct a conveyer belt at Port Qasim for shipping coal to the Sahiwal coal power project within the deadline of December 2016.

Therefore, an alternative plan, or Plan-B, has been conceived for coal supply to the power project if the conveyer belt is not completed on time. For this purpose, the request for proposals has also been issued.

Elaborating, the PQA chairman said under Plan-B coal would be transported through the Marginal Wharf, which would save a substantial amount of money. As part of this arrangement, coal will be loaded onto vessels at $4 per ton excluding the royalty of $2.40 per ton for the PQA.

However, committee members were of the view that the alternative arrangement should not hurt the original plan. Both arrangements should be finalised to ensure an uninterrupted and smooth supply of coal to the power project, they said.

An official of the Ministry of Water and Power gave updates on the laying of transmission lines from Port Qasim to Matiari, Thar to Matiari, Matiari to Lahore, Matiari to Faisalabad and power transmission from the Neelum-Jhelum and Tarbela fourth extension projects.

The transmission line from Port Qasim to Matiari would be completed in two phases. In the first phase, power lines will be laid over 45 km by December 2016 with the help of power ministry’s own resources whereas in the second phase power lines will cover 140 km by September 2017.

He pointed out that the Matiari to Lahore and Matiari to Faisalabad transmission lines were part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) programme. Both projects would be completed in 24 months after achieving financial close.

According to the official, 75% work on the Neelum-Jhelum transmission line has been done and the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2016. Work on the Tarbela-4 transmission line will be finished by June 2017.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd,  2016.

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