The project is aimed at linking the Thar Coalfield with national railway track for transporting the coal to other power plants of country.
The project was put on back burner by the PTI regime. Its execution was expected in 2020 but the MoU was signed in Dec. 2021 with no progress.
Sindh Courier
Karachi
The work on a railway project aimed at linking the Thar Coalfield with the rest of country for transporting the Thar coal to other coal-fired power plants, is expected to start shortly.
“The proposed project envisages laying of a 105km long railway line to connect Thar Coalfield and the national railway track at Chhor,” Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh said here in a statement on Sunday.
He said the proposed project was thoroughly discussed in a meeting with the Chairman of Pakistan Railway Board and the senior officials Federal Ministry of Railway in Islamabad on Saturday. “We discussed all other aspects of the project.”
Imtiaz Shaikh said that hopefully the work on the project would start shortly. “The project would be completed in 14 months after start of the work,” he added.
Minister further stated that linking the Thar coalfield with the national railway track at Chhor would leave a healthy impact on the national economy as well as the economy of coal-fired power plants as huge foreign exchange could be saved currently being spent on import of the coal.
Imtiaz Shaikh said that Thar coalfield is capable to meet the requirement of coal-fired power plants of country.
Secretary of the Energy Department and other officials also attended the meeting held in Islamabad.
It may be mentioned here that the years-old proposed project was put on back burner during the previous PTI regime. The project was also discussed in a meeting between Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and Chairman CPEC Authority retired Gen. Asim Bajwa on February 22, 2020 in Karachi. And on December 21, 2021 a Memorandum of Understanding was also signed by Pakistan Railways and some companies – Railway Constructions Pakistan Limited (RAILCOP), M/s Al Furqan Holdings Private Ltd, and BIL Pakistan Pvt. Ltd for execution of plan of laying a new 105 km rail track connecting Thar Coal Block II with new Chhor station on the Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas rail link.
The project cost at that time was estimated at 170 million euro, which may have escalated manifold due to unprecedented inflation and devaluation of Pakistan currency. The project was to be executed under 100 percent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by Al Furqan Group UAE, CEO RAILCOP, as was told by Syed Najam Saeed while addressing the MoU signing ceremony in Islamabad in December last.
He had said that all the relevant authorities and stakeholders were preferring and urging to adopt rail as a primary mode of transportation for Thar coal as compared to highway mode, as this new rail link would be helpful in the coal-driven energy projects executed under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
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