Business

Thar coal: ‘Influential elements hindering project’

Sindh finance minister says delays are a conspiracy.

Ppi May 17, 2011

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.

COMMENTS (3)

A Suhail | 13 years ago | Reply Who are these "influential people" and whats the reason they are not letting coal deposits to be developed? Pakistani leaders are known for talking non sense and spreading conspiracy theories. We do not have any money in our kitty and we are begging Chinese to come and develop the whole area for us but Chinese have certain apprehensions regarding the project. Just say the truth Minister saheb.

Ahmed | 13 years ago | Reply I agree with both Aamer Khawaja and the Sindh Minister. The truth is always more complex. Pakistan (being a aid beggar and corrupt society) always does things that make no sense. In 2004/2005 when Pakistani economy was booming several companies from China, EU and America wanted to develop Thar coal mines. At that time Wapda and Power Development Authoirity was full of people on the pay off Middle Eastern Countries who were making a killing selling furnace oil to Pakistan (and they still are) and in the pockets of Pakistan funace oil based power plant owners.. There is a conspiracy and it is not against Sindh in particular. But most of the people operating gas and funace oil based power plants are against it. Why?? All these semi-efficent 30 MW to 100 MW power plants are located in Industrial estates, mostly in and around Lahore. These plants are inefficent and costly. These power plants were set up by Textile mill owners and they made money by over invoicing the projects and most of them are punjabis (not a conspiracy but just a co-incidence). They do not want efficient 1000 M W plus plants in Sindh as it would make the industries in Karachi more efficient. So when ever you talk about coal, they talk about hydel. The problem is Hydel projects which are big take 7 to 10 years. China puts a coal power plant once a week. So it is a consirsacy. it is not particularly against Sindh. But in a way it is hurting Sindh. But most importantly Pakistan.

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