Comment by Riaz Haq on December 30, 2017 at 4:32pm

#Pakistan invests $4.5 billion in Thar desert development in #Sindh

https://www.brecorder.com/2017/12/30/389797/investment-of-4-5-billi...

The Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair has said that the investment to the tune of dollars 4.5 billion in Thar is something very significant.

He was expressing his views at an interactive session on energy held at the Governor House here on Friday.

The Governor referred to the Thar coal reserves containing 175 billion tons and said that these would help meet country energy needs for a long time to come.

The coal would not only be used for the generation of energy but would also be for provision of basic needs to the residents of the area.

Zubair said that for the betterment of infrastructure 250- bed hospital as well as schools are also being built.

The government is taking every step so that the people of Thar could benefit from the natural resources of the area.

The Governor assured that the federal government would extend every cooperation for the welfare and betterment of the people of Thar.

He informed that generation of power from Thar coal would commence from the year 2019 and this will contribute towards prosperity in the area.

Zubair said that new avenues of development would also open in Thar.

The Chief Executive Officer of Sindh Engro Coal Mine, Shamsuddin Shaikh, said on the occasion that 76 percent of jobs in Thar have been provided to the local people.

He said that the time period of the project span over 42 months but it would be completed in 36 months.

He said that first phase of the project would be executed in 2019.

The company, he added, would also adopt all the schools in Thar.

The company required 500 drivers and intermediate pass youngsters were provided training and appointed as driver with the company at the monthly salary of Rs. 30,000.

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 1, 2018 at 8:42am

Economist Magazine: "Just 1% of the vast #Thar #coal reserve discovered in 1992 could supply a fifth of #Pakistan's current #electricity generation for half a century" #CPEC #energy #infrastructure

https://www.economist.com/news/business/21736185-just-1-vast-reserv...

PAKISTAN’s enormous mineral wealth has long lain untapped. Since a 1992 geological survey spotted one of the world’s largest coal reserves in Thar, a scrubby desert in the southern province of Sindh, prospectors have hardly dug up a lump. Among those to flounder is a national hero. Samar Mubarakmand, feted for his role in Pakistan’s nuclear-weapons programme, has just shut the coal-gasification company he founded in 2010, when he vowed on live television to crack Thar.

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To such qualms, the government offers three rejoinders. First, severe power shortages have long blighted the nation, and renewable sources cannot offer the daylong, year-round power it needs. Second, coal accounts for less than 1% of current generation, compared with 70% in neighbouring India and China. And third, domestic coal would allow the country to forgo expensive imports of the fuel for newly built power stations, a drain on fast-dwindling foreign-exchange reserves.

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Eight years ago Engro bought the rights to one of Thar’s 13 blocks, containing 1% of the reserve (more than enough given the gargantuan size of the mine). To work on extraction, it formed the country’s biggest ever public-private partnership, the Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC), in which Engro digs and the state provides infrastructure. Relying on the state can break strong firms. Engro itself almost went bankrupt in 2012 after the government refused to honour a sovereign guarantee to provide gas to one of its fertiliser plants. Yet without similar government support, no other Thar block-owners have secured financing, leaving Engro’s diggers, which began work last year, to move ahead.

The endeavour benefits from being in the group of infrastructure projects that make up the $62bn China Pakistan Economic Corridor, a hoped-for trade route. Western banks shook their heads when approached about a coal project, so Engro has relied on Chinese financing. Analysts note an irony in China’s promotion of coal abroad as it withdraws from the fuel at home. Handling the extraction at Thar is the China Machinery Engineering Corporation, a state-owned firm with expertise beyond Pakistan’s reach.

Around 126 metres below the sands of Thar, with just 20 more to go, Engro’s diggers can now almost touch their prize. When the coal is reached, as is expected in mid-2018, it will feed a pit-mouth power station constructed by Engro, and, in time, three others owned by partners in the SECMC. These stations will furnish around a fifth of the country’s electricity for the next 50 years. The financial rewards could be vast. “All my richest friends are jumping up and down [because they did not get there first]”, says the boss of one big multinational construction business.

Hurdles remain, not least complaints from nearby villagers about the disposal of the vast quantities of wastewater from the mine on their ancestral grazing lands in the form of a reservoir. In reply, Engro stresses its social work in the surrounding district of Tharparkar, the poorest in Sindh, which includes the construction of several free schools. More self-interestedly, it is training locals to drive so they can man the dump trucks that trundle day and night around the mine. According to Shamsuddin Shaikh, chief executive of Engro Powergen, the conglomerate’s energy division, Engro also has its sights on Reko Diq, a gargantuan and long-stalled copper mine in Balochistan, the least developed of Pakistan’s provinces. To tap one of the country’s two largest and most niggardly mines is hard enough. Imagine cracking them both.

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 5, 2018 at 7:23am

PPP nominates Thari Hindu woman to contest Pakistan Senate polls on general seat

https://www.dawn.com/news/1387270

Pakistan People’s Party has nominated Krishna Kumari, a Kolhi woman belonging to a remote village in Nagarparkar district of Thar, to contest for a general seat during the upcoming Senate election.

Kumari is a social activist who joined PPP along with her brother, who was elected chairman of union council Berano. She has reportedly been asked by the party leadership to file nomination papers to contest the upcoming Senate election on PPP ticket.

Born to a poor peasant Jugno Kolhi in February 1979, Kumari and her family members spent nearly three years in a private jail allegedly owned by the landlord of Kunri of Umerkot district. She was a grade 3 student at the time when held captive.

Kumari was married to Lalchand at the age of 16, when she was studying in 9th grade. However, her husband supported her in pursuing studies, as later in 2013 she did masters in sociology from Sindh University. She also actively participated and worked for the rights of downtrodden people of marginalised communities living in Thar and other areas.

When contacted, Kumari told Dawn that she was given assurances by senior party leaders that they would get her elected as Senator “to set a new precedent and empower women from remote areas and minority communities”.

Provincial minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah, MNA Dr Nafisa Shah, MPA Dr Mehesh Kumar Malani and other PPP leaders had requested the party leadership in this regard, she said.

"I was called by Bilawal Bhutto and Faryal Talpur a few days back. They said they will allot me the ticket to contest the election to become a senator on a general seat from Sindh," Kumari maintained.

Kumari said she has made all the arrangements and documentation needed to file her nomination papers after she was made the candidate by party leaders.

PPP lawmaker from Thar Dr Mahesh Kumar Malani, when contacted by Dawn, confirmed that the party had decided to give Kumari a ticket and hoped that a Kolhi girl — from the family of the valiant freedom fighter Rooplo Kolhi — would be elected with majority votes.

Rooplo Kolhi had waged a war against the invading British colonialist forces when they had attacked Sindh from Nagarparkar side in 1857. Subsequently, he was arrested and hanged by the Britishers on August 22, 1858.

Dr Malani termed it a great decision by the party chairman to select a Thari woman to represent Thar in the Upper House.

Comment by Riaz Haq on October 25, 2018 at 8:09am

Carpenters Challenge Notions Of '#Women's Work' In Pakistan. Dozens of women in northern #Pakistan have learned #carpentry skills as part of a #training program to make them financially independent. #vocation https://www.rferl.org/a/pakistan-women-carpenters/29562991.html

Comment by Riaz Haq on January 28, 2019 at 4:25pm

In a first, #Pakistan appoints #Hindu #woman Suman Bodani underdeveloped rural area of Sindhas civil #judge https://tribune.com.pk/story/1898858/1-first-pakistan-appoints-hind...

For the first time in Pakistan’s judicial history a woman belonging to Hindu community has been appointed as civil and judicial magistrate.

Suman Bodani, hailing from Sindh’s Shahdadkot district, was declared eligible for the post after passing her judicial officers’ examination with flying colours – securing 54th position on the merit list, Express News reported on Monday.

Speaking to a foreign news outlet, Bodani said she belonged to an underdeveloped rural area of Sindh, where she witnessed poor struggling to cope with various challenges life throws at them. “They cannot even afford to lodge cases, and that is the reason behind my decision of joining law [studies] so I can bring justice to them,” she was quoted as saying.

After completing her intermediate from her native town Shahdadkot, Bodani persuaded law and acquired Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from Hyderabad and Master of Laws (LLM) from Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST) in Karachi.

Bodani also said she faced resistance form her own community as they did not like girls working in the law field. However, her family including her father and siblings extended their full support to her. “My family did not pay any heed to what people would say and helped me achieve my goal.”

Last year, Justice Syeda Tahira Safdar made history after becoming the first woman chief justice of a high court in the country.

She was also the first woman appointed as a civil judge in Balochistan and holds the distinction of being the first woman in the province appointed as a judge in the Balochistan High Court.

Comment by Riaz Haq on August 29, 2020 at 9:27am

Monsoon in #Pakistan: Bane for farmers, boon for animal herders. Heavy rain has hit standing crops & #vegetables plants nurseries hard, but animal herders in #Thar desert are happy as more rains mean more fodder for #livestock and better livelihood. #Sindh https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/706310-monster-rains-a-bane-for-pl...

According to reports pouring in from different parts of the province, including Sanghar, Matiari, Tando Allahyar, Tando Muhammad Khan, Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Dadu, Thatta, Sujawal, Badin, Mirpurkhas, Umarkot, and Tharparkar districts, heavy rains have flooded the fields of cotton crop at the time of its harvesting, as farmers were busy picking in many areas.

In others parts nurseries of onion, tomato, and late variety of chilli, ready to be planted, have also come under rainwater, causing uncertainty among growers.

The farmers had already prepared their pieces of land for plantation of abovementioned veggies, but the record showers disrupted their plans.

Mir Zafarullah Talpur, a grower in Tando Jan Muhammad, sharing his observations, said the farmers in Kunri, Umerkot, Dighri, Naukot, Samaro and Jhudho had lost their fine quality chilli due to heavy rains. “An up to 12-hour long continuous rainfall inundated the crops over a wide area,” he observed.

Gulab Shah, a grower from Keti Bunder coastal area, said the rain had been pouring since the last 24 hours, causing damages to standing crops of Paan (Betel leaves), tomato, banana, cucumber, and chilli. “Artificial drains made for saline water are not taking flood water. In some places these drains are seen overflowing, further threatening crops,” he said.

The chilli in coastal areas has its different season compared to main chilli zones like Kunri.

Haroon Memon, a chilli grower of Kunri, Umerkot district said the farmers were preparing to start harvesting of early sown chilli expected to start on September 15, 2020.

The crop standing on hundreds of acres in the area has come under rainwater.

“There is no exact data of crop damages, because neither concerned government departments nor growers’ bodies have the capacity to assess the situation,” Memon said adding however the losses were likely to be huge in chilli and cotton crops in these areas, where entire farmland was under water.

Noor Hussain Khoso, another farmer from Badin, said cotton and chilli were sensitive crops, which have come under water and might be lost within a few days in case water did not recede.

“Mostly there is no drainage system in any agriculture area to save the crops. Some influential landlords have arranged dewatering machines to save their crops, but many other farmers, who are unable to drain the water out of fields, fear big losses,” Khoso said.

Some farmers said it was too late to rent dewatering machines because the new rain spell was due within a few days, as reported by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

Manzoor Kalhoro, who manages four nurseries of valuable fruit, ornamental plants and forest species in Deh Narejani, Hyderabad city suburbs, said the devastation rained on them.

“It is not only Hyderabad, there are reports from Mirpurkhas where nurseries have come under water,” he added.

A large number of people are in the plant nursery business. They are using pumping machines to drain rainwater to save the saplings, but at the same time are bracing for losses. There are several sensitive plants which cannot survive in stagnant water for many days.

Muhammad Siddiq of Mithi, Tharparkar called the rain a boon for the desert areas, where farmers and herder families seem happy, believing rain might benefit the early sown crops and green pastures.

There are reports that breaches in irrigation tributaries have also caused flooding of crops.

Comment by Riaz Haq on September 11, 2020 at 8:32am

#Pakistan to lay 105 Km new #railway track to transport Thar #coal to be ready by June 2022 with the initial capacity of carrying 3.80 million tons/year (MTPA) of coal from Thar coal mine. By 2025 it will transport 10.80 million tons/year. #Sindh #energy https://nation.com.pk/24-Aug-2020/govt-decides-to-lay-new-railway-t...

The project will require around 1600 Acres of land and it will be operational by June 2022 with the initial capacity of carrying 3.80 MTPA coal from Thar coal mine. By 2025 it will have the capacity to transport 10.80 MTPA coal, the source said. The cost of laying of 105-kilometer long new railway line from Thar coal mines to Chhor station on Hyderabad-Mirpurekhas, Khokhropar section of Pakistan railway is around Rs24.50 billion, cost of rolling stock is Rs65 billion, O&M cost is Rs4 billion and cost of improvement of the existing 149 KM track from Hyderabad to new Chhor station is Rs3.8 billion. The source said that rail transportation of coal from Thar mines is the most feasible and three times cheaper option as compared to road transportation. The project will help saving foreign exchange reserves of $432 million per annum which can increase up to $1.2 billion per annum at ultimate mine capacity. Moreover the transportation by rail will protect the road infrastructure from damage and will save the environment.

Comment by Riaz Haq on August 2, 2021 at 6:54am

Cause for Celebration: Coal-Fired Plant Provides #Power, #Economic Boost to #Pakistan. The plant uses Thar coal with state-of-the-art #environmental control systems, including electrostatic precipitator. #Sindh #Thar #technology. #electricity https://www.powermag.com/cause-for-celebration-plant-provides-power...

The Engro Powergen Thar Ltd. power station is transforming a desert region that has long sought reliable electricity to support its economy, create jobs, utilize an abundant natural resource, and help solve an energy crisis.

The importance of a coal-fired power plant to an entire region, and to a country, was highlighted in Pakistan earlier this year. It’s not often that government officials and the general public come together to celebrate an energy project, but in this case, there was plenty of excitement about how the Engro Powergen Thar Ltd. (EPTL) facility is enabling Pakistan to take advantage of its natural resources, and provide economic opportunities and support for a harsh desert region considered a difficult place to live.

The EPTL plant utilizes Thar coal—which the country has in abundance in the Tharparkar region—to generate electricity. Officials say it will make Pakistan, a country that has faced electricity shortfalls for years, more energy secure, and provide a viable solution to an ongoing energy crisis.

The realization that the country’s reserves of lignite coal can be used in a domestic power plant prompted a three-day festival in March, and has led Pakistani officials to call the EPTL facility transformational for the country’s future. It’s among the many reasons POWER has chosen EPTL as a Top Plant in the coal-fired category.

“The proof of concept that electricity can be produced from Thar coal has been demonstrated successfully by EPTL, [and] it is the first plant to utilize this lignite coal for production of electricity,” said Syed Manzoor Hussain Zaidi, CEO of EPTL.

State-of-the-Art Equipment
The EPTL plant, located about 280 miles southeast of Karachi in the Sindh province of Pakistan, is what Pakistani officials call a first-of-its-kind mine mouth power plant, using indigenous Thar coal—the first power generation facility to do so. It is equipped with two 330-MW circulating fluidized bed boilers, along with an innovative three (steam-cooled) cyclones arrangement, with once reheat, two cylinders, two flow exhausting, single-axial and condensing steam turbine generators. The plant has what operators consider state-of-the-art environmental control systems, including electrostatic precipitator technology, which helps the plant meet the International Finance Corp.’s (IFC’s)—a subsidiary of World Bank—emissions guidelines.

The plant’s equipment and other facilities have been designed to function safely and smoothly in a harsh desert environment—for example, ambient temperatures as high as 50C (122F), with excessive dust. The plant also has a laboratory equipped with state-of-the-art equipment to ensure that the quality of coal being utilized meets the design specifications and safety requirements.

Officials said that advanced control strategies such as a robust distributed control system (DCS) have been implemented to ensure EPTL is a fully automated plant. Despite the variable coal quality from the mine, which is a big challenge for the plant, control loops have been optimized to ensure efficient operation. Officials said that alarm rationalization was recently performed as per the International Society of Automation (ISA) 18.2 standard; after which, the recurring alarms were reduced by 99% and alarms per operator per hour are less than 12.

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 9, 2022 at 5:05pm

China’s belt and road projects will help lift Pakistan from poverty, says Imran Khan
Despite questions around Pakistan’s deals with China, its PM says CPEC and Gwadar port are viewed as ‘a great opportunity’
Khan told Chinese President Xi Jinping that Islamabad would support China at any time as its ‘all-weather friend’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3166407/chinas-be...


“I do not understand why there is this suspicion about CPEC [China-Pakistan Economic Corridor] and the Gwadar port … what China achieved is really [why] we look at China as a role model, because never has a nation lifted so many people out of poverty as did China,” Khan said.

“This is really my main concern: how do I lift people out of poverty, how do we create wealth in our country? We see CPEC and Gwadar as a great opportunity for our geoeconomics, I think this is not exclusive between Pakistan and China. We invite any other country to join and invest in CPEC projects,” Khan said, referring to his policy on strengthening trade and investment with regional countries.
“We want to lift our poverty using the example of China,” he said.

CPEC comprises a network of roads, railways, ports, power plants, oil and gas pipelines and optical fibre cables. A main feature of the project is a road from Xinjiang in China’s far west to Gwadar port in Balochistan. Only around a third of the projects have been completed.

“The US is also a good friend of Pakistan, but it is different from the all-weather friendship with China,” Khan said, adding that in the past the US had switched between being friendly towards his nation and then sanctioning Pakistan over regional issues, including conflicts in Afghanistan.
“Pakistan-China relations have been stable for the past 70 years,” Khan said.

Comment by Riaz Haq on July 18, 2022 at 8:20pm

A friendly desert - Newspaper - DAWN.COM

Opinion by Rajesh Kumar Goyal
Assistant Commissioner Karachi

https://www.dawn.com/news/1696453

THARPARKAR has always been portrayed as an underprivileged area with low socioeconomic indicators. Drought, water crisis, infant mortality, suicide cases, grievances of the locals against Thar coal, Gorano dam issues, displacement of indigenous people on account of industrialisation, lack of health and educational facilities, and much more like these have made headlines in national and international media from time to time.

My own experience, however, has been quite different and surprising since the day I was posted in Mithi. To me, Thar is a beautiful place.

The day I stepped in Mithi, I was fasci-nated and surprised to see such a neat and clean city with spacious roads, glittering streetlights, decent infrastructure and the amazing night-time view of Mithi city from Gadi Bhit.

The more I explored Mithi, the more I found it to be a beautiful, unique and amazing city. My prior impression, formed on the basis of media reports, stood shattered. It is the shattering of such illusions that has compelled me to share my personal experience of the area and its lovely and loving people.

The idea is to portray the brighter side of Tharparkar, which rarely gets the attention that it deserves. Tharparkar is not just a desert; it is a vegetative desert, meaning a friendly desert. Thari people, being extremely resilient, live in the lap of nature, eat natural, organic food, walk miles on foot, sleep early, wake up early and enjoy a satisfied and fulfilled life away from everything that defines urban life.

On the development side, Tharparkar is undergoing serious transformation. Thar coal has contributed a lot to its development, though there is still a long way to go. Its beautiful wide network of roads, comfortable rest houses, government as well as private health facilities, educational centres make it a far better district than many others across Sindh.

Its historical sites, such as Gori Temple, Bhodisar Mosque, Jain Temple, Karoonjhar Hills, Gadi Bhit, and, above all, its scenic natural beauty during the monsoon attract a large number of tourists from all over Pakistan who visit to explore Thar and its rich culture.

Mithi, the headquarters of Tharparkar, is an embodiment of tolerance, interfaith harmony and human compassion. The loving people of Mithi live together in peace and harmony regardless of their religious creed. All religious festivals are celebrated by both Muslim and Hindu communities.

Not visiting Tharparkar, especially during the monsoon when it is in full bloom, is like depriving oneself of a chance to enjoy the rich Thari culture, some real fun, and peace and relaxation that this beautiful place offers. Try it this monsoon!

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