HYDERABAD: Thar’s coal is not of inferior quality as its sulphur content is better than most coals, which is why it is attracting investment from various sectors, said Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) on Saturday.

Talking to journalists on Saturday, SECMC’s CEO Shamsuddin A Shaikh said Thar’s is a brown coal which is considered younger coal and used everywhere for production.

As for the production, he said the SECMC would establish eight power plants with four of 330MW of electricity each by mid 2019. “First power plant will be there by end of December 2017 followed by second in mid 2018.”

The SECMC, a joint venture of the Sindh government and Engro Corporation set up to exploit the huge Thar coal reserves to produce cheap power, is going to spend two to three per cent (Rs3 billion) of total project’s cost of $1.8bn (Rs180bn). Mr Shaikh said 20 million tonnes of coal would be used every year to produce energy.

The project is part of public-private partnership for which sovereignty guarantee had been issued by the government. “The joint equity of Sindh government and the SECMC is 25pc and the remaining 75pc is the debt. Of this 75pc, 85pc is to be financed by China while the remaining 15pc will be borrowed from local banks,” he said.

Sindh government’s share is 51pc and SECMC’s is 49pc and more companies would contribute to it, he said.

Pakistan, he said, has 7th largest coal deposits but uses only 0.1pc of it. In comparison, India uses 550m tonnes of coal, of which 450m tonnes are of its own and the rest is imported.

He feared that if Pakistan remains dependent on imported fuel for energy production then by 2030 $50bn would have to be spent on oil. Heating value of Thar coal (175bn tonnes) is equivalent to that of Iran and Saudi Arabia’s heating value of oil combined.

“One per cent of coal will produce 5000MW of energy for 50 years,” he said. Out of 12 blocks, the SECMC is given block-II which has 2bn tonnes of coal but only 1.57bn tonnes of it would be used.

He said that coal is available at 135 metre depth underneath soil in this block. There are three underground aquifers and barring first one, which is discontinuous aquifer, the remaining are entirely brackish. He said 95-98pc of water is underneath coal.

Hydrological mapping is to be done for it and this water would be used for cooling in the plant and for the community after treatment. The good thing, he said, is that seam of the coal is very thick.

He said that brackish water would be diverted toward salty lakes in Rann of Kutch and afterwards water would be treated in reverse osmosis plants. Villagers would be provided water resource first. “We will get 30 cusecs of underground water and after treatment we will get 20 cusecs and remaining 30 cusecs would be achieved through LBOD [Left Bank Outfall Drain] after treatment to make for a total of 50 cusec of water for community and our project,” he said.

Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepca) has approved Environment Impact Assessment (EIA), he said, adding that Nepra has determined 8.57 cents upfront tariff for two power plants against national average of 13 cents but cost will drop to five cents with more plants coming up.

About relocation of villages, he said it would be required after eight years as two villages — Senhri Dars with 135 and Thahriyo Halepota with 303 households — are to be relocated.

“Roads are being properly built in the area and we have given specifications to the government to transport machinery,” he said.

He added that local drivers would be hired for running the heavy trucks, each of them costing Rs10m, and they would be trained through simulators.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2014