'Pace of work accelerated on mining, power plant projects in Thar Block-1'

ISLAMABAD: The chairman of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority Asim Saleem Bajwa has said that the Chinese multinational power generation company, Shanghai Electric, has expedited the pace of work on mining and 1,320 MW power plant at Thar Block-1 despite COVID-19 pandemic, ARY News reported on Monday.

Asim Saleem Bajwa said in his Twitter message that the development work on mining has been completed by 20 per cent and 15 per cent on the power plant project.

Update:Shanghai Electric has accelerated pace of work despite COVID,at Thar Block-1 both in Mining & 1320 MW power plant.
Progress -Mining 20%,power Plant 15%.Those interested,may apply for jobs as per ad below #CPEC #cpecmakingprogress #pakistanmakingprogress pic.twitter.com/MLkpYjCprk

— Asim Saleem Bajwa (@AsimSBajwa) July 27, 2020

The Chinese power company had started mining in Thar Block-1 in October last year to develop mine and construction of coal-fired 1,320 coal-fired power plant.

It emerged that Shanghai Electric and National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) had also requested the Sindh government to allocate 100 acres of land at Jhimpir for the construction of a grid station to evacuate power generated from the wind corridor.

Read: Detractors giving false impression of CPEC being slowed: Asim Bajwa

Moreover, the displaced families due to development projects will be shifted to a modern colony to be built by the Chinese company in Thar.

Earlier on Sunday, the CPEC Authority chairman had elaborated the plan of the federal government regarding the ongoing projects in Balochistan.

He had said that the government is currently focused on building roads in South Balochistan for better connectivity and socio-economic development.

In a tweet, he had said Hoshab-Awaran-Khuzdar and Awaran-Bela are in focus to transform this region.