Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Saturday approved a one-time Rs950 million grant to pay Rs10,000 stipend to the affected families that have been displaced due to the Thar Coal Block-II project.

Shah was chairing a meeting at the CM House to review the water and rehabilitation schemes that are underway in the Tharparkar district.

The provincial government will pay a monthly stipend of Rs10,000 to the residents who lost their homes due to the power project, the chief minister announced. The affectees will also be provided houses equipped with basic facilities. According to an estimate, around 1,200 people have been rendered homeless due to the ongoing project.

"We have decided to support them [the affected families] financially in addition to providing them a well-designed and well-constructed house in a township with all the basic facilities such as kitchen, washrooms, corridor, veranda and courtyard where they have been given lawn and two neem trees and more than two jobs to each affected family,” the chief minister was quoted as saying.

Mosques, mandirs, hospitals, and schools will also be built near the residential areas and the [Sindh] government will ensure that the people of Thar are taken care of, the chief minister said.

Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh briefed the chief minister during the meeting that 60 houses have already been built, while others were under construction.

The power project is spread over 9,000 kilometres and comprises 12 blocks. The chief minister said that Block-II's relief scheme will be replicated in other blocks where residents had been displaced.

Shah also announced that the royalties generated from the coal projects will be spent solely on the development of Thar and its residents and vowed to turn the area into "one of the most prosperous cities of the world".

The estimated amount of royalties is said to be Rs2.5 billion.