Govt, ADB agree on awarding contract of Jamshoro power project by Sept

ISLAMABAD: The federal government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Thursday agreed for finalisation of awarding contract for installation of supercritical coal-fired units at Jamshoro Power Generation Project (JPGP) by September this year. The decision was made in a meeting between the Ministry of Water and Power with ADB team. The meeting reviewed the progress on different on-going ADB-funded power projects, and the overall performance of National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) and power distribution companies (DISCOs) in improving the energy system.

Secretary Water and Power Younus Dagha informed the team that the issues pertaining to acquisition of land and coal suppliers are expected to finalise by the mid April 2017. The ADB had already approved $900 million for the Jamshoro project and would disburse it when all formalities are completed. Through JPGP, two new supercritical coal-fired power generation units with capacity of 600 megawatts each will be constructed in Sindh province. 

The bank express satisfaction over the government’s efforts for improving power sector and its implementation on the bank’s funded projects and also assured its further support in the sector including capacity building of managerial staff and other officials in the sector.

They appreciated the improvement in power sector and also showed satisfaction over the pace of work on the projects and distribution companies. The ADB delegation showed their interest to enhance the level of cooperation beyond the existing level.

Younus Dagha briefed the ADB officials about the overall measures been taken by the ministry to increase the effective role of NTDC and DISCOs in on-going ADB-funded projects.  The ministry is much concerned about increasing the capacity of NTDC/DISCOs on management, procurement and financial sides, for which the ministry has been spear-headedly working for last six months. 

This meeting was held here between the ministry and the Bank officials to review the progress on different on-going ADB-funded power projects and overall performance of NTDC and DISCOs in improving the energy system. ADB team informed that 81 percent contracts had been awarded under distribution to various DISCOs and with this momentum ADB portfolio in distribution sector is $567 million out of which 59 percent has already been disbursed which is much higher disbursement ratio as compared to development works before 2014. 

In transmission sector ADB is financing multiple projects amounting $344 million of which 91 pc contracts have been awarded and 54pc amounts have been disbursed. The distribution and transmission line projects are very important for meeting the target set by government to address power shortages by mid 2018.

While discussing the progress on JPGP, it has been mutually agreed to complete the process of awarding of contracts as soon as possible. Issues pertaining to acquisition of land and coal suppliers are expected to finalise by April, next, month.

The secretary informed the ADB delegation, that the performance of the distribution companies had been improved a lot over last two years. This is evident by the additional cash flows worth Rs116 billion due to better distribution and lower line losses.