THARPARKAR: As Pakistan successfully launched its third power plant with capacity of 330MW on indigenous Thar coal, the newly inaugurated coal power plant is lighting up villages, creating jobs and cutting the cost of fuel imports.
To decrease reliance on expensive imported fuels for electricity production, the Thar Energy Limited (TEL) power plant, under CPEC Block II completed by Hubco company in the district of Tharparkar, has been made operational and was inaugurated by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto on Monday.
The Prime Minister also laid the foundation stone of the railway line project to connect the Thar Coal Power projects.
According to Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah, by the end of this year, the production capacity of the power plant is expected to reach 2,640 megawatts. The Sindh CM also claimed that Thar’s coal-fired power generation will benefit the national exchequer by $2 billion by the end of 2022.
Around 12,500-gigawatt electricity from Thar coal has been added to the national grid, hence bringing down the production cost of electricity to Rs17 per kWh compared to the Rs24per kWh electricity produced by LNG, and Rs37 per kWh from imported coal.
“Thar Coal Block II spends 2 per cent of its profits on social development in Thar district, employing at least 3,303 people from the region including women”, stated the minister. –Agencies
