Thar Coal Power project will help Pakistan generate energy at a much lower cost, and this would be a game-changer for the country’s overall development, said Shamsuddin Shaikh, former CEO of Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company, while talking to WealthPK.
“In the current global economic recession, Pakistan faces the challenge of a massive hike in the fuel price in the international market. With the help of China, Pakistan installed imported coal-based power plants as part of its CPEC investment at the beginning of the project, but now it is installing local coal-based power plants,’’ he said.
“The Thar region of Pakistan has around 175 billion tons of coal reserves, equivalent to 50 billion tons of oil and 2,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas,’’ he said. ‘’Pakistan recently successfully launched a third power plant with a capacity of 330MW based on the indigenous Thar coal. Tharparkar district in Sindh now has three plants operating on the local coal. As a result, the total installed capacity of Thar coal has increased to 990 megawatts in three years,’’ added Shamsuddin Shaikh.
