ISLAMABAD, July 9: The federal government has set up a provincial coal authority by abolishing two federal and provincial agencies to expedite mining and development of Thar and other coal deposits in Sindh.

A formal notification to this effect has been issued by the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, technically empowering the provincial government to take all decisions relating to coal development and power generation in consultation with provincial and federal agencies.

Headed by Sindh chief minister, the authority will comprise the federal minister and secretary of water and power, a provincial minister, Sindh chief secretary and the managing director of the Thar Coal Authority.

The authority came into being after the abolition of the Sindh Coal Authority (SCA), a provincial agency, and Thar Coal Mining Company, a joint venture of federal and Sindh governments.

The authority will function as one-stop organisation on behalf of all ministries, departments and agencies of the federal and provincial governments for mining, development, leasing and sub-leasing of Thar coal area. It will also be responsible for development of clean coal technologies, research and development and gasification.

The authority will also be required to attract investment for coal mining and gasification in Thar and other areas in province for power generation.

A senior government official told Dawn that the federal government had “handed over” the development of Thar coal project to the Sindh government, mainly to expedite the setting up of a 1000MW coal-fired power plant.

He said hurdle delaying the project had been removed with the centre agreeing to a “supporting role” for itself in the $1.5 billion project and letting the Sindh administration “spearhead” and sort out all issues relating to the project.

He said the mining of Thar coal would cost $400 million and the power plant $1.1 billion. It will be an integrated power plant which will generate its first megawatt in six years. He regretted that the project could not be set up by the RWE company of Germany, Shenhua of China and Hasan Associated of Pakistan because they were demanding a tariff which kept on increasing from 5 cents to 9 cents for the development of each megawatt and that too without having any back-up data relating to the project.