The 300MW coal fired power plant located at Gwadar has been designed and approved to be operated on imported coal. Recently government of Pakistan has proposed the used of Thar coal for the plant to which the Chinese stakeholders have expressed their unwillingness.
Chinese company, M/s CHIC Pak Power Company (Pvt.) Limited (CPPCL) has said that the lenders of the project have highlighted that relocation of the project or a change in design fuel entails the development of a completely new project and that not only such change will render useless the efforts in project financing being undertaken at the bank, as well as, Sinosure but will leave very negative impact at these institutions.
CPPCL has requested the GoP entities to not consider any alteration in the project since tremendous and unprecedented efforts have been made at the government level to seek a special approval for financing this project in April 2022.
Chairman CPPCL Zhao Bo, has reiterated the fact that imported fuel shall be the primary source, subject to meeting the plant technical specifications, NEPRA consent, and availability. The Project Company may also purchase coal from Afghanistan or Balochistan to minimize the use of foreign exchange for Pakistan but altering the fuel of the project is not acceptable to the lenders.
