October 29, 2008	Wednesday	Shawwal 29, 1429

KARACHI, Oct 28: City Naib Nazim Nasrin Jalil has said that the ministry of water and power (Private Power and Infrastructure Board) has given its approval for the setting up of a 550-megawatt power generation station in Karachi which will be installed by United Arab Emirates’ Dhabeen Power Engineering Company.

Besides power generation, the plant will also supply 50 million gallons daily (mgd) desalinated sea water to the city.

In this regard, she thanked Federal Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and MNA Faryal Talpur.

Talking to the CEO of Dhabeen Engineering, Tanvir Zaidi, at her office on Tuesday, the naib nazim said that the power station would greatly help in overcoming the ongoing power crisis in the city and would reduce difficulties of people.

She said the plant would be set up in the area of Lyari Development Authority which would also help provide jobs to the youths of Lyari.She said the company would also establish a training centre to produce technicians for the power plant.

Tanvir Zaidi thanked Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad, City Nazim Mustafa Kamal, Naib Nazim Nasrin Jalil, MNA Dr Farooq Sattar and Dr Mohammed Ali Shah and said that due to their efforts the federal government gave the approval for the installation of the power plant in Karachi.

He said the plant would become operative in 14 months after the issuance of a Letter of Support from the government.

In the first phase, he said, 350MW of electricity would be produced and 550MW and 50mgd water would be generated in the second phase and in the third phase the power generation would reach 1800MW and 150mgd sea water would be desalinated and supplied to the city.

He said in the third phase, the plant would be run on coal.

—APP