Badin coal field: Geological Survey of Pakistan approves plan

Project to be completed by 2016 at a cost of Rs170m.

ISLAMABAD: The Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP) has approved a plan to explore coal resources for the Badin Coal Field and its adjoining areas of Southern Sindh (Thar), which would be completed by 2016 at a total cost of Rs170 million.

The GSP is also engaged in the exploration of tertiary coal in Central Salt Range, Punjab, costing Rs43.350 million, over a three-year implementation period (2013-16).

These projects will help establish additional coal reserves to meet the growing domestic energy demand and develop coal fields in order to increase power generation.

“Exploration of mineral and coal resources is undertaken as a regular activity by the concerned federal and provincial organisations within their domains through private sector investment as well as public funding,” official sources told the media. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources has done extensive work, contributing to discoveries of all major coal fields in the country, he added.

Besides sponsoring coal exploration and development projects through government funding, the provincial governments have granted many coal prospecting and exploration licences in private and public sectors, investing their own resources for the requisite exploration work.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2014.

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