HYDERABAD, May 8: Dr Ludwig Hormann, the head of mining engineering department, Rheinbraun Engineering, Germany, has said that his company is preparing a feasibility report of the Thar coal project and has finished the exploration phase.

He was speaking at a one-day seminar on "Planning and Design of Surface Coal Mine with Special Reference to Thar Coal Project" organized by the department of Mining Engineering at Mehran University of Engineering and Technology on Saturday.

He said that his company, a leading coal mining company of the world, had entered the mine designing phase following a site assessment and would finally prepare a feasibility report that would be submitted to the Pakistan government by the end of September.

Speaking on the occasion, MUET vice-chancellor Professor (Dr) Abdul Qadeer Khan said that the Thar coal field was one of the biggest in the world with 175 billion tonnes of lignite reserves.

He said that coal-rich nations, regardless of their economic development, had made proper use of the mineral to support their power sector as it was a cheap source of energy.

Pointing out that Pakistan spent over $600 million annually on the import of fuel oil, he said that it should be viewed as an anomaly as the country had huge coal deposits. No wonder, the federal and provincial governments were giving top priority to the mega project, he added.

He said that the university was also extending support to the Sindh Coal Authority for development of coal resources of the province.

In his speech, Dr Ghani Pathan, the university mining expert, said that energy was a fundamental driver of economic development.