ISLAMABAD, Aug 3: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has decided to upgrade laboratories of the department of mining engineering at Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro.

The decision was taken in a meeting of the Departmental Development Working Party (DDWP) of the HEC held here at its campus under the chairmanship of the commission’s executive director Dr M. Akram Shaikh.

According to a press release issued here on Sunday, the project, costing about Rs35 million, aimed at strengthening the existing labs facilities of the university’s mining engineering department as well as launching indigenous PhD and MPhil programmes in various fields of mining and mineral engineering and to conduct problem-oriented and basic research in the field.

Under the scheme, preference will be given to the fields of coal mining, coal cleaning, coal utilization, coal gasification, and beneficiation on china clay, silica sand and other indigenous industrial minerals.

After implementation of the scheme, these labs will become capable of providing laboratory testing and investigation services to the related industry of Pakistan.

The project will not only be beneficial to the development of indigenous coal cleaning technology, which is direly needed for cement and other process industry in the country, but also prove the credibility of the university and its faculty.

The scheme will help in boosting the mineral and energy/coal sector of Pakistan which in turn will improve the socio-economic condition of the backward areas of the country.