Pakistan People Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari inaugurated the Thar coal power plant on the 10th of april 2019. The 660MW power plant is generating electricity from the indigenous lignite coal being extracted from Thar block 2 located 25 Km from the town of Islamkot.
Bilawal while addressing the inauguration ceremony said that the people of Thar are entitled to free electricity as their coal is being utilized to supply electricity to the national grid so he will issue directives to the Sindh government to pay the electricity bills of the people of Islamkot, initially, and later the electricity bills of the whole Thar region.
He also announced setting up of two universities in Thar including a campus of the NED University of Engineering & Technology in Tharparkar. The other one will be a multidisciplinary university, which will be established under public private partnership mode.
Thar Coal power is the only project where 71 percent jobs have been given to local people, the affected people of coal mining have been given houses, and Rs100, 000 for each family annually.
Consul General of China in Karachi, Wang Yu speaking on occasion said that he was feeling proud to attend inauguration of the Thar-coal power plants established under CPEC projects. Thar coal has the capacity to meet the entire electricity requirement of Pakistan.
Samad Dawood, Vice Chairman of Engro Corporation said that without energy Pakistan could not achieve its development goals, therefore we have to tap our energy resources.
Chairman SECMC Khursheed Jamali said it was something to be proud of to see the inauguration of the plant for which the journey was started some 24 years ago. This is the only project of Pakistan which was started against an estimated cost of $854 million and now it has been completed at $670. The saving would be utilized for the expansion of the project to 4000 MW.
