CM to review resettlement plan

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah urged a delegation of the Thar Coal Block-I Power Generation Company on Tuesday to provide employment to local people in the area and resettle the displaced families and said he would soon visit Thar and review the settlement plan.

Meeting a delegation headed by Meng Donghai, the chief executing officer of the Thar Coal Block-I Power Generation Company, the CM said the Thar Coal Block-I project involved the development of a 7.8 million tonnes per annum open pit coal mine and the installation of a 1.3 gigawatt ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plant.

"For the project, more than 40 per cent of the coal mining work has been completed," he said, sharing his plans to visit the site of the project at the month's end.

Briefing the CM on the project's progress, Donghai said the installation of the power plant was under way and the coal mining work was expected to reach completion by the end of 2021. He added that the first unit of the power plant was expected to be made operational in 2022 and it was likely to complete by 2023.

When the delegation apprised the CM that assistance was needed for the disposal of mine water and supplying water to run power plants, the CM directed Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Shaikh to conduct a feasibility study to identify means and sites for the disposal of mine water.

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As far as the provision of water for running power plants is concerned, the CM said, a project for the construction of a canal between Nabirsar to Vajihar is launched, which will supply water to Thar-Coal Block-I. He, however, added that the energy department was to finalise the project.

The CM further said the Thar Coal Block-I Power Generation Company would have to sign a water user agreement with the energy department to be able to get water from the canal for Thar Coal Block-I.

As the meeting neared its end, the CM urged the delegation to resettle persons displaced following the development of the project and provide them employment opportunities, acknowledging that the residents of two villages had been displaced following the execution of the project.

At this, Donghai replied, "We are committed to settling them and have already started the resettlement process."

The CM then also urged the delegation to provide local residents of the area employment opportunities.

"I want that the fruits [of the project] be shared with the local people of Thar and they have the foremost right on them," he said, adding that he would soon visit Thar Coal Block-I and review the settlement plan.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2021.