Power generation with Thar coal a landmark achievement: CM

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said some of the major and unprecedented achievements of the provincial PPP government include power generation from Thar coal, the restoration of law and order in the post-2008 scenario, the establishment of power plants, and the construction of roads and bridges on the River Indus in the public-private partnership mode.

Talking to assistant superintendents of police (ASPs) of a Specialised Training Programme of the National Police Academy at the CM House on Monday, he said the coalmining in Thar and the installation of coal-based power plants were not an ordinary task.

“All the government institutions, right from the federal government to the provincial setup, were against open-pit coalmining. “They were of the view that the coal was of inferior quality and was not fit for power generation,” he said and added that since it was the dream of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, the party leadership and the government were committed to realising her dream and finally they had achieved the objective by producing electricity-based on indigenous coal and started supplying it to the power plant installed near the mine.

Shah said that the power plant was supplying 660MW coal-fired energy in the national grid and similar other projects worth billions of rupees were still in progress. “This achievement of the provincial government of the PPP will be written in golden words in the annals of history,” he said.

Talking about law and order, he said that when the PPP came into power in 2008 in Sindh, neither the highways were secure, nor the city of Karachi was peaceful.

“People used to travel in convoys on the highways and Karachi had no-go areas where even law enforcement agencies were reluctant to enter,” he said and added that the PPP government not only secured the highways but also removed no-go areas from the city. He termed it a big achievement, which was followed by the reconstruction of infrastructure and the restoration of educational, cultural and sports activities in Karachi.

Talking about the achievements of the public-private partnership mode, Shah said the Sindh government constructed Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas Road and then the same mode was used to build a bridge on the River Indus to connect Thatta from Jhirk with Tando Mohammad Khan at Mulakatiar.

He added that then the provincial government went on taking up projects in the PPP mode and worth mentioning were the Karachi-Thatta road, the Ghotki-Kandhkot bridge on the Indus, and the Malir Expressway (under construction).

The CM said political opponents were accusing the PPP government in Sindh of not paying attention to Karachi, but it was his government which had developed its infrastructure. “The so-called claimant of Karachi had given dead bodies, did target killings, extortion and set up no-go areas for the people of this city,” he lamented and said his government was still working on the development of the metropolis.

He claimed that his government had done a comparatively good work in establishing health institutions. “Today, some of our hospitals are well-known in terms of health care all over the country,” he said and added he had to work for the improvement of education in a similar pattern.

The chief minister responded to questions of training ASPs and urged them to serve the country with devotion, dedication and honesty.