ISLAMABAD, Oct 30: Pakistan on Tuesday asked a Chinese company to carry out, as soon as possible, the feasibility study of Thar coal project so that the mega project could be implemented on a fast track basis.

Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Usman Aminuddin and a three-member visiting delegation of Shenhua Group of China held a meeting here and discussed details of the project.

Ma Jun, the general manager of Shenhua, leading the delegation, briefed the minister about the development activities of the group in China.

The delegation will stay in Pakistan till the end of this week, and discuss technical details with officials of the Sindh Coal Authority (SCA) and other provincial authorities.

The petroleum minister told the delegation that the government was focussing on Thar Coal reserves to meet the energy needs through indigenous resources.

He said that Pakistan and China have been cooperating in the petroleum and mineral sector, and the mega projects like White Oil Pipeline and Saindak Copper Project were being undertaken by the Chinese companies.

A Rs100 million worth of Bankable Feasibility Study of Thar Coal Mining is currently under process for minemouth, integrated coal fired power project.

The ministry of railways has been asked to look into the possibility of undertaking Karachi-Hyderabad-Badin-Islamkot or Karachi-Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas-Naukot-Islamabad rail-link on the basis of cost effective and commercially feasible construction.

Shenhua Group Corporation of China (SGCC) would carry out feasibility and technical reports of the Thar coal on the basis of studies already completed by Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP) and Sindh Coal Authority (SCA) and recently handed over to Shenhua.

The Shenhua group had demanded one out of four blocks in Thar coal field, with at least one billion tons of coal reserves and details were currently being provided to the group. Under the GSP study, Block I, II, III and IV have coal reserves of 3.56 billion tons, 1.584 billion tons, 2.008 billion tons and 2.48 billion tons coal reserves.

The Shenhua group, the sources said, has reported that Thar coal field possessed significant potential for development but required a lot of preparatory work. It has advised co-generation approach (meaning minemouth power generation plant with associated captive coal mine) as the priority development option. At a later stage, the complex could produce coal briquettes to supply to the consumers in Sindh.

Around 175 billion tons of coal is spread over 9,000 sq km of Thar desert and the main coal bed thickness ranged from 12 to 21 meters at an average depth of 170 meters.