KARACHI: The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) on Wednesday decided to seek railway’s input on a controversial coal project of the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) before granting it a formal approval, sources told Dawn.

The decision followed a technical experts’ meeting called by Sepa to get the green signal for the multi-billion coal transshipment project. Of the 12 experts invited to the meeting, sources said, at least 10 turned up to discuss the PQA project, which involves turning two berths at the port into modern coal-handling facilities. After the completion of the project, the two berths are expected to handle about 30,000 tonnes of coal a day.According to the sources, the project wasn’t forcefully opposed by most experts though one of the major concerns raised during the meeting was linked to railway’s efficiency to safely transport huge quantities of coal to the Sahiwal district in Punjab where a coal-based power plant is being built.

“Experts were concerned how the railway would safely transport 4m tonnes of coal every year upcountry since it lacks the required capacity and expertise,” said an expert who attended the meeting on condition of anonymity. He added that the participants were informed that the railway had prepared a plan on coal transportation upcountry.

Questions, he said, were also asked about the measures to be adopted to minimise environmental impact likely to be caused by flying coal dust as the fuel would be transported in open train wagons.

“Responding to this concern, the PQA representative said a thin film of foam would be used on the coal to tackle this problem. He, however, couldn’t give a satisfactory answer when asked about the chemicals to be used as foam and stated that whatever best is available in the market would be utilised,” he said.

On the information shared at the meeting that the height of coal stockpiles would be kept up to 12 to 15 metres, it was suggested that it should be maintained at the height of six metres as otherwise it would be difficult to safely manage coal.

The experts also discussed in detail a threat of spontaneous ignition of coal stockpiles and raised questions over the quality of coal and the safety measures to be taken to keep it secure.

About concerns related to the air quality, sources said, the PQA representative argued that contrary to the unsafe manual handling of coal currently being practised at both ports, the project envisaged adoption of modern coal handling technology, which would improve air quality.

It was also pointed out that the coal from mother vessels would be directly shifted to the conveyor belt, there would be no use of barges and the four-kilometre-long conveyor belt would entirely be covered.

In his concluding remarks, the Sepa director general asked the PQA to address concerns of the Bin Qasim Association of Trade & Industry (BQATI) representing 180 industrial units operating in the Port Qasim area.He also instructed the authority to provide details about their corporate social responsibility efforts it intended to take during the project for local communities.

It was also decided that the railway would be consulted and asked to share the report it had prepared for coal transportation.The committee of experts included senior manager at Attock Cement Irfan Amanullah, DGM (project and technical) at the DG Khan Cement company Atif Saeed, assistant professor at Karachi University (KU) Dr Adnan Hassan, senior scientific officer at the National Institute of Oceanography, Karachi, Dr Samina Kidwai, associate professor at the Quaid-i-Awam University, Nawabshah, Dr Kishan Chand Makwana, assistant professor at KU’s Institute of Environmental Studies Dr Waqar Ahmed and former registrar of the NED University of Engineering and Technology Prof Javed Aziz.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2016