The Minister for Power Mr. Omar Ayub Khan presiding

125th meeting of PPIB

Islamabad, 29th August 2019: The Federal Minister for Power Mr. Omar Ayub Khan while presiding the 125th meeting of the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) cherished the collective efforts of Power Division, PPIB and provincial governments of Sindh and Balochistan in materializing  two mega power generation projects of around 2000 MW in a short period of around one month. The Minister welcomed the recent additions of 1320 MW imported coal based Power Project at Hub and 660 MW thar coal based Engro Powergen under the umbrella of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). While praising the CPEC, the Minister reiterated that the present government is according top priority to the CPEC and committed to provide all possible facilities to the companies working on the project.

The Minister during the meeting remarked that since the electricity crisis is over, now we are concentrating on fuel mix which is dominated by our indigenous and natural resources. Our end dream is to ensure affordability in arranging future capacity additions for which hydro, local coal, solar and wind assets are particularly vital which are abundantly available across country and enough to provide round-the-clock power supply for a long time, the Minister added. In today’s meeting, particular focus was on hydropower projects particularly the small hydro power projects and secondly the thar coal mining and power generation projects being setup in the earlier neglected Tharparkar which is now emerging as energy capital of Pakistan. In a bid to facilitate ongoing IPPs in achieving various milestones, the Board in today’s meeting granted guidance and way forward leading to their smooth, quick and effective implementation. The Board agreed to allow extensions in Financial Closing Dates of thar coal based 330 MW Power Project by Thar Energy Limited and 330 MW Siddiqsons Energy Limited both located at Thar Block-II without disturbing the completion dates of these projects which are fixed as March 2021 March 2022 respectively.

In the light of directions given by the Board in its earlier meetings for processing small hydropower projects under tripartite LOS regime of Power Generation Policy 2015, PPIB presented detailed report which was prepared in consultation with NTDC and CPPAG. The Board appreciated the efforts of Power Division, PPIB, NTDC and CPPAG and agreed to proceed in the matter in accordance with the Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP) and according to the approved criteria. In order to facilitate differently able talented people of the society, PPIB Board approved 2% quota to be implemented for their recruitment in a fair and transparent manner.

Managing Director PPIB Mr. Shah Jahan Mirza briefed the Board on processing of new transmission line projects in the private sector under the Transmission Line Policy 2015. The Board advised PPIB to engage consultants to prepare bidding documents in accordance with the best international practices for conducting first round of ICB for the transmission line projects.