Hardly between 15 and 20 megawatts of electricity is being generated at the Lakhra power station which has the installed capacity of 150 megawatts, Sindh Energy Minister Murad Ali Shah has told Sindh Assembly members.
He was responding to a question raised by Muttahida Qaumi Movement legislator Mohammed Hussain during the Question Hour that pertained to the energy department during the Sindh Assembly session yesterday that was chaired by Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani.
Mr Shah said that three power generation units each having the installed capacity of 50MW had been installed at Lakhra but two of these had been shut down and the third one, which was being operated by cannibalising the shutdown units, generated between 15 and 20MWs, whenever it became operational.
He said that the Sindh government planned to cancel the lease of Lakhra coal mines given to the power station, which belonged to the federal government and set up a bigger power station under its public-private partnership policy.
Responding to a question asked by MQM legislator Heer Soho regarding slow progress on the Thar coal related power generation projects, the minister said that, “because of environmental concerns, no Western country was showing any interest in Thar coal; however, China had shown some interest and negotiation were under way with China in this connection. The government was encouraging private investors to install power stations on the public-private partnership basis”.
Responding to another of her question regarding the power generation project using Thar coal gas, the minister said that it was a federal government project costing around Rs9.8 billion and so far around Rs1.6 billion had been spent and initially between eight and 10 megawatts were to be generated by Dec 2014, however the date was extended.
Replying to a question by MQM legislator Dewan Chand Chawla regarding electricity for Karachi, the minister said that the government planned to set up a 100MW power generation station near Nooriabad soon and the electricity from which would be provided to the provincial capital.
