KARACHI, Aug 17: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has said that foreign entrepreneurs are taking keen interest in the Thar coal power projects following deliberations of the Washington conference on Thar coal. Sindh has now been invited to the Hong Kong conference on power generation projects, he said.

The chief minister was addressing a press conference after presiding over the first meeting of the recently-constituted Sindh Coal and Energy Board at the CM’s House here on Sunday.

There has been no law and order problem in Sindh, where all required infrastructure for executing power generation projects is available and arrangements are being made for air service to facilitate access to the area, he observed.

Mr Shah said that in order to evaluate coal deposits in that region, a four member committee had been constituted. He named M/s Jehangir Siddiqui Company, the Engro Group, the Al-Tuwairqi (Saudi Arabia), Lucky Group, Giga Group (UAE) and M/s Metal Investment Company (UAE) as some of the companies seeking evaluation of the coal deposits before making investment in the proposed power projects.

Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf, who is vice-chairman of the Thar Coal and Energy Board, told journalists after attending the board’s meeting that the country’s energy requirement would go up to 16,000 megawatts by the year 2016. He said that a $30 million investment was required to materialise the power generation projects and the government planned meet one third of the requirement through the public sector and seek the rest of the investment from the private sector.

He said the government had chalked out both short- and long-term strategies to meet the challenge, adding that agreements with Iran and some other Middle East countries for the procurement of 1,100MW were being concluded. A Turkish firm would set up windmills in Jhimpir and Gharo within the next six weeks to produce between 6MW and 60MW electricity, he said.

In reply to a question, Raja Ashraf said that because of an unusual increase in the petroleum prices over the recent months, attention was being paid to alternative energy sources.

He said there were an estimated 175 billion tons of coal deposits in the Thar region.