Thar coal-fired power project to be inaugurated on 10th, says CM

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has decided to organise a formal inauguration ceremony of two Thar coal power projects, each of 330 megawatts, on April 10.

“This inauguration of power generation on Thar coal is historically important because the project was conceived and founded by then prime minister Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and her [PPP] government in Sindh has realised her dream of Roshan Thar, Roshan Sindh and Roshan Pakistan,” he said while presiding over a meeting on Monday to work out and finalise arrangements for the inauguration ceremony of the power plants. The meeting was attended by Energy Minister Imtiaz Shaikh, Adviser on Information Murtaza Wahab and other officers.

Shah said that in 1996 Benazir Bhutto had laid the foundation stone of a coal-fired power project to generate 1,300 MWs by 1999 and then every year 1,300 MWs would have been added to the system until a total 5,200 MWs of electricity would be generated by 2002.

“I am proud to say that my father, then Sindh chief minister Syed Abdullah Shah was also present in the stone-lying ceremony and was part and parcel of the project.” Shah added that the cost of the electricity from this project was as low as 4.6 cents/pkh.

He deplored that when work on the project was to be started, the then PPP government was removed undemocratically and this project of national importance was abandoned. As a result, Pakistan plunged into darkness of loadshedding, he added.

He said that after 22 years with hectic efforts and guidance of the party leadership, the PPP government of Sindh was going to inaugurate the Thar Coal Power Plant to generate 660 MWs of electricity. “Today, the spirit of Shaheed Mohterma Benazir Bhutto must be feeling content and satisfied in the heaven as her lieutenants, President Asif Zardari, Chairman Bilawal Bhutto and myself have worked day and night and materialised her dream of generating electricity on Thar coal,” he said.

Imtiaz Shaikh briefed the chief minister about the arrangements for the inauguration of the power project on April 10. The chief minister said that he wanted to have a festive type of arrangements. “This is a not an ordinary achievement but the Thar coal-fired power project is major feather in the cap of the PPP government,” he said and added Thar must be decorated with banners, buntings, feathers, posters and similar posters may be uploaded on social media to celebrate the event.

The project has already brought prosperity to the people of Thar and after power generation its benefits would further trickle down to whole of the province and the country.

Under the inauguration plan, the coal would be lifted from the coalmine, Block-II, and would be poured in the boilers of power plants to generate electricity and the power so produced would be pumped into the national grid laid through transmission line made from Thar to Matiari. “This would be a historic activity of power generation which is bound to light the future of Pakistan,” Shah said.

New special assistants

Five new people were made special assistants to the chief minister on Monday. They were Moula Bakhsh Mubejo, Pir Noorullah, Riaz Hussain Shah, Veerji Kolhi and Naisma Ghulam Hussain. The number of special assistants to the chief minister has risen to 11 with the addition of the five new ones.