Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Wednesday termed the Thar coal power plant a ‘pride for all of Pakistan’ and said the entire country will benefit from the electricity generated by the plant.
Addressing a ceremony after inaugurating the 660-megawatt coal power project in Thar, Bilawal said it is the country’s ‘most successful project’ and that his mother, the late Benazir Bhutto, had dreamed of providing electricity to Pakistan with Thar’s coal. “This is Pakistan’s most successful project. This is naya Thar. This is naya Pakistan,” he said.
“This is what is called good governance. This is what you call a mega project,” Bilawal continued, adding, “Others only talked while PPP actually delivered.”
Bilawal said he is proud to have inaugurated a project that his mother had laid foundation for. He told the audience that it was the late prime minister who had first introduced the concept of public-private partnership in her 1993 manifesto.
“I am happy that the fruit of your blood sweat and tears is being added to the national grid,” he said, and announced that the Sindh government will provide free electricity to the residents of Islamkot and Thar once the project starts generating electricity.
Bilawal further announced that a campus of the NED University of Engineering and Technology will be set up in Thar. “I also want that Thar gets its own university. I want an NED University campus here ,” he said while directing the authorities concerned to establish the campus in the area at the earliest. “This is the least we can do to help the poor people of Thar,” he said. “The engineering disciplines that will be taught in the university will benefit the dwellers of Thar greatly,” he said. “I visited the housing society that has been created to rehabilitate the people who were affected by the coal power project. I have to say, there have been many projects created all over the country but I have not seen the people affected by those projects rehabilitated in such a manner,” he added.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and PPP leaders as well as Sindh cabinet members were in attendance at the inauguration ceremony. The Thar coal power project consists of two power generation units of 330MW each, and has a capacity to generate 660 megawatts of electricity. The project was completed under CPEC public-private partnership of Sindh government in 10 years. The Sindh government has given the sovereign guarantee of $700 million for the project.