Thar coal project: 93% work completed, likely to be operationalized by December
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ISLAMABAD: The first unit of Thar coal power plant is likely to contribute 330 MW of electricity to the national grid by December 2018, six months ahead of given schedule as so far 92 percent work on coal mining while 93 percent work of power plant has been completed.
Work on coal mining in Thar block II, and power plant near the site of coal mining started in 2016 and was earlier scheduled to be completed by June 2019, but due fast pace of the work, the project is being completed well ahead of given time.
“The 270 kilometer long transmission line from Thar block II to Matiari has already been completed at a cost of $270 million, while work on both coal mining as well as power plant is in progress simultaneously and is in final stage,” Chief Operating Officer of Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) Abul Fazl Rizvi told APP.
Rizvi said the mining work had achieved depth of 154 meters at Thar block II where coal had emerged on the surface.
With respect to quality of the coal, he said it was of very good quality as was expected and as we would go deeper the quality would get better.
In the first phase of Thar Coal project, 3.8 million ton ofcoal would be extracted from which two power plants of 330 MW each would be operated while the power capacity from Thar block II would be gradually increased and by 2024, Thar coal block II would be producing around 5200 MW electricity.
Fazl Rizvi said the second unit of the Thar coal fired power plant would also start functioning by March 2019.
He informed that in January 2019, work on two more power plants would be started in Thar block II with total installed capacity of 660 MW.
He said initially the cost per unit of electricity produced from these power plants would be Rs 10.8 cents while its cost would be reduced gradually and by 2030 the per unit cost would be around Rs 4.6 cents.
Tharparkar is spread over an area of 19,000 square kilometer where around 9000 square kilometer coal was present whereas the area on which government had allowed to extract coal is an area of 1300 square kilometer and this area
has been divided into 13 blocks with 100 square kilometer area of each block.
APP
