CM wants Centre’s aid for Keti Bandar jetty and power project

The Sindh chief minister said on Tuesday that the federal government should express its interest in building a new jetty and a power project at Keti Bandar in Thatta so that foreign and local investors could be attracted to this important energy and communication project.

Responding to the questions of lawmakers during the question hour of the Sindh Assembly, Murad Ali Shah, who holds the additional portfolio of the energy department, said the provincial government would work on the project conceived by late Benazir Bhutto to produce electricity at Keti Bandar using coal.

He said the federal government was supporting the province in its own new power projects.

He added that the Centre was neglecting the Keti Bandar project because of which prospective investors were discouraged.

“In case the federal government extends its due support, Sindh can easily produce sufficient electricity for the entire country.”

He said Sindh was planning to produce 25,000MW through its own projects.

He said that expressions of interest had been invited by the Sindh government in 2013 for building a new jetty and a coal-based power project at Keti Bandar but at that time the authorities concerned had not received any proposal from the private sector. He said expressions of interest would again be invited in this connection.

He said in the initial phase, a power project of 320MW capacity would be installed at Keti Bandar but eventually an infrastructure would be built there to generate 5,000MW. Transmission lines would be laid for the electricity produced from Keti Bandar till Thatta and Jamshoro.

Shah said the indigenously available coal would be used for producing electricity and for its transportation a railway track would be laid between Tharparkar and Keti Bandar covering a distance of 200 kilometres.

He said that had the project conceived by late Benazir Bhutto to produce electricity through coal, not been shelved by the later governments, there would not have been a shortage of electricity persisting in the country now.

He said that there was no shortage of indigenous coal reserves available in Tharparkar so there should be no need on the part of the federal government to import coal. He said that Sindh government had been working on a number of power projects including two gas-run power units in Nooriabad each of 50MW capacity and the electricity produced there would be supplied to Karachi.