Gadani power project suspended

Sindh finance minister cites environmental concerns.

KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Finance Murad Ali Shah has said that following serious reservation expressed by the Sindh government and other stakeholders, the Gadani power plant project has been suspended.

He was responding to a question-and-answer session of the assembly on Tuesday.

The federal government had announced to establish the power plant with a capacity of 6,000 megawatts (MW) based on imported coal in the area. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had inaugurated the project, which is also known as the Power Generation Park at Gadani. The memorandum of understanding was also signed with a Chinese company, which, according to the provincial finance minister, has now distanced itself from the project.

“The project is near Karachi which can cause a disaster. Not only has the Sindh government termed it an unfit location, but environmentalists and technical experts have also agreed,” he said.

“Earlier, the PML-N government was willing to establish the coal power plant in Punjab, but it is not feasible,because there was no coal deposit there and it was difficult to transport it from Thar and Karachi,” he said, adding that the provincial government had inked agreements with five foreign companies to start coal mining in Thar and 20MW wind energy plants were being set up at five different locations in Sindh to generate electricity.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th,  2015.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.