ISLAMABAD, May 12: The Board of directors of Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) on Thursday decided to issue Letter of Interest (LoI) to AES for 1,000 MW integrated coal based power project at Thar at the earliest. An official statement said the Minister for Mines & Mineral Development Government of Sindh appreciated AES’s interest in the development of a mega coal based power plant in Sindh and informed the Board that the Government of Sindh will sign an MoU with AES for coal mining lease at Thar very soon. This project would bring over one billion dollar investment in Pakistan.

The decision was taken in 54th meeting of the PPIB’s Board held here and presided over by Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaqat Ali Jatoi.

Along with the members from the government and the private sector, Irfanullah Khan Marwat, Minister for Mines & Mineral Development, Government of Sindh also participated in the meeting on special invitation to discuss the facilitation of coal based power projects.

The board approved issuance of letter of interest to a 200 MW dual fuel (gas & oil) power project at Sahiwal. It also allowed PPIB to process another 225 MW dual fuel project at Bhikki. These two projects will bring investment of $400 million from the private sector.

The board discussed various coal based projects which were being implemented by PPIB and directed that a proactive approach be adopted to bring more power projects based on coal.

It was further decided that PPIB would continue providing one-window facility to the coal based private sector projects with the support of government of Sindh for fast implementation of the private power projects.

The board was informed that so far the PPIB had been successful in attracting power generation projects of about 8,300 MW with an estimated investment of $8 billion. The meeting was further informed that so far the PPIB had issued LoIs to 16 projects with the capacity of 3,717 MW having investment of about $3.5 billion and five projects of 1,560 MW were at very advanced stage for the issuance of LoIs.

The board was apprised that PPIB had received an excellent response for three thermal projects and seven hydel projects which had earlier been advertised by the PPIB.